December 11, 2025
CURRENT FLOOD EVACUATIONS AND ALERTS AND HIGHWAY CLOSURES IN THE FRASER VALLEY remind us of a similar event from November 14-16, 2021.
As our minds turn to the waterways of the Stó:lō (“People of the River” in Halq’eméylem) communities, there are opportunities to learn more about the ancestral, unceded territory called S’ólh Téméxw (“Our Land”) and its history.
In 2024, a year before his retirement from a 40-year career as Cultural Advisor / Sxweyxwiyam (Historian) at the Stó:lō Research and Resource Management Centre, Si:yémiya, Dr. Albert (Sonny) McHalsie, who also carries the Hereditary name Naxaxalhts’i, shared from his wealth of knowledge in a film called Rooted Waters: The Names and Stories of Nine Bands Connected by Streams.
Produced by Bear Image Productions for the Chilliwack Chamber of Commerce, the film was screened in June 2024 as part of an evening of culture and celebration at The’í:tselíya, the S.A.Y. Health & Community Centre.
The film was posted to YouTube in August 2025 as a 10-episode video series. The videos highlight the Stó:lō’s deep connection to the Fraser Valley’s lands and rivers through traditional place names and stories and showcases their histories and how they are connected through rivers, sloughs, and streams.
“We identify our territory according to watershed, but also we identify our territory according to water connections,” says the Elder in the intro video in the series.
See the University of the Fraser Valley’s web page on Sumas Prairie failed dikes and flooded farmland, and browse through the videos, images, exhibits, library resources, databases, reports, and law and legislation pertaining to Semá:th X_ó:tsa (Sumas Lake), the 2021 flood, historic floods, Sumas Prairie drainage, flood management, and emergency planning.
A UBC researchers’ 2024 proposal to turn at least part of Sumas Prairie back into Sumas Lake is “ecological reconciliation” and “the most ecologically responsible solution for flood management in the region.”
Legal personhood for the lake is contemplated as “another legal tool in the colonial toolbox,” lawyer Leah Ballantyne told APTN News last year.
The concept of legal personhood for water was explored in October 2025 at CLEBC’s webinar “Water Law: Collaborative Solutions within Multiple Legal Orders 2025,” scheduled for rebroadcast on March 3, 2026.
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We acknowledge that the land on which we work is the unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples, including the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.