A syilx Youth’s fight to save her horses, and the thread that cannot burn

A syilx Youth’s fight to save her horses, and the thread that cannot burn As the Bradley Creek wildfire blazed at OKIB, Sienna Belanger rescued her family’s animals — and continues her dream for The People BY KELSIE KILAWNA ● FEATURES, OKANAGAN ● AUGUST 26, 2026 Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Share on Reddit Share on WhatsApp Email this Page Sienna Belanger, 25, walks toward the smoke to turn on the water at her mother’s barn as the Bradley Creek wildfire approaches her family’s property on the Okanagan Indian Band, Aug. 1. Photo by Mariel Belanger This story is co-published with The Narwhal. When the fire came to the Okanagan Indian Band, Sienna Belanger’s first instinct was to catch her horses. Winds had reached 115 km/h, with sustained speeds of 80 km/h, according to the BC Wildfire Service. Six-foot-tall flames ripped through the grassland. “I only managed to get one of my horses,” she said. “Then we just opened up the gate and ran with them down to our bottom field. They got loose. All I could do was hope and pray.” Sienna did not know the syilx word qwilmiʔst on August 1 when the Bradley Creek wildfire came, but she lived it. The teaching describes a person who pulls together their physical skills, their sharpest thinking, their deepest intuition, and their spiritual awareness and acts without hesitation.  It is what the Old People call on when facing anything serious. To hold back part of yourself is to risk everything. To give your whole self is how you meet the unknown. As the fire grew closer, the flames were everywhere. Sienna ran through the smoke, through the flames, to turn on the water at her mother’s barn.  She started dousing the flames. She does not remember making the decision, but she remembers her body moving. “It was just like that adrenaline moment where you do something or you freeze, and my loved ones froze, and I just couldn’t in that moment myself not do anything,” she said.  “I just felt like a different switch turned on, and I was like, ‘Okay, there are things to do, things I need to organize.’” She was not thinking or hesitating, she was qwilmiʔst. All of herself was in motion. A land worker, a horsewoman, a dreamer Sienna has been in her home on the Okanagan Indian Band since the fire came over the hill on Aug. 1. She and her neighbours at Abel Cove were under evacuation order, but with such a short time to leave, they chose to stay. Her Papa had always been intentional about who lived…