Simon Brascoupé and Megan Muller co-hosted Shelly Boyd, Rick Desautel, and Derrick LaMere in their Zoom classes (ANTH 2610A and SOCI 2810B) on October 6.
Students were asked to view “Older Than the Crown” in advance, a film by Derrick LaMere which follows the trial of Sinixt tribal member Rick Desautel who was charged with hunting as a non resident and without a proper permit in Canada in 2010. Rick harvested an elk on the ancestral land of the Sinixt people in Vallican British Columbia Canada. To the Sinixt, hunting on ancestral land is an aboriginal right gifted to them by Creator. A right that has legally been denied to the Sinixt people since 1956 when the Canadian government unjustly declared them extinct in Canada, despite the nearly 3,000 members existing on the Colville Indian Reservation in Washington State.
During the class, Shelly, Derrick and Rick each presented, and students asked questions.
On October 8, Simon briefly visited Shelly and Rick on the steps of the Supreme Court where their case was being heard (pictured below).