The Ktunaxa First Nation have lost their initial court challenge to Jumbo Glacier Resort, B.C.’s first year-round ski resort planned for the Purcell Mountains west of Invermere.

The towering mountains and glaciers of Jumbo are sacred to the Ktunaxa, who have held huge rallies and blockades to try and prevent the resort from being built.

In B.C. Supreme Court Thursday, the Ktuanxa tried to argue they weren’t properly consulted before Jumbo’s proponents had their development agreement approved by the province.

Ktunaxa leader Kathryn Teneese said she is still digesting the decision.

“We’re very disappointed. Appeal is always an option, but obviously we want to wait and get advice from  our legal team with respect to the overall viability of an appeal.”

The $1-billion development was first proposed — and cautiously endorsed by NDP Premier Mike Harcourt — in the early 1990s.

Once complete, it will feature up to 23 lifts, a 3,000-metre-high gondola and a ski village with more than 6,000 units.

The resort will be comparable in size to Silver Star in Vernon, B.C.

Source: CBC

Ktunaxa (pronounced ‘k-too-nah-ha’) people have occupied the lands adjacent to the Kootenay and Columbia Rivers and the Arrow Lakes of British Columbia,                       Canada for more than 10,000 years.

The Traditional Territory of the Ktunaxa Nation covers approximately 70,000 square kilometres (27,000 square miles) within the Kootenay region of south-eastern                       British Columbia and historically included parts of Alberta, Montana, Washington and Idaho.

For thousands of years the Ktunaxa   people enjoyed the natural bounty of the land, seasonally migrating throughout our Traditional Territory to follow  vegetation and hunting cycles. We obtained all our food, medicine and material for shelter and clothing from nature- hunting, fishing and gathering throughout our Territory, across the Rocky Mountains and on the Great Plains of both Canada and the United States.

European settlement in the late 1800s, followed by the establishment of Indian Reserves, led to the creation of the present Indian Bands.