Lillooet Indigenous Court

Helping our people and communities through an Indigenized justice process.

What Is Lillooet Indigenous Court?

Lillooet Indigenous Court is a criminal sentencing court that uses restorative justice and traditional practices to help community members find balance and healing. It is available for Indigenous people in St’at’imc and Nlaka’pamux territories.

Indigenous Courts provide a re-envisioned justice process that incorporates traditional peacemaking principles.

Click here to read the original business case document: LIC Business Case 2022

How it Works

Embark on the process offered through Indigenous Court, where individuals are given an opportunity to look closely at how their decisions have impacted others.

Any individual who self-identifies as Indigenous is eligible.
Participants in the court have plead guilty.
Individuals must be referred to the Indigenous Court.
The individual’s file must be within provincial jurisdiction.
Individuals should have a sentence no longer than 2 years.

Accepting responsibility for their actions and choosing to voluntarily receive a judgment in Indigenous Court will be the initial step to participating in the Indigenous Court process.

Healing Plan

The Committee of Elders support individuals in making a healing plan that will move them toward a better future and help create accountability.

A healing plan is an attachment to a probation order, and has a condition that states individuals must do their best to follow the plan. The Elders and individual’s Probation Officer work closely to supervise and monitor progress made on the healing plan.

A healing plan is tailored to individual strengths, draws upon community capacity, and could include rehabilitative or restorative actions.

Indigenous Law

St’at’imc and Nlaka’pamux laws come from the land, our language, stories and our way of life. The guiding principles and values of the Indigenous peoples of the Lillooet and Lytton area as are lived by the inhabitants here:

We value our Elders’ input
Things take time
Everyone has a gift or something to offer.
Teachings and stories such as “How the animals and birds got their names” discuss the place of struggles in our lives.
There are a lot of things that drive our laws, we are a collaborative people.
Through helping others, we realize that people are here to help us too. “When you are feeling low, help someone.” – Larry Narcisse

Agency is important in our ways. People do not do or think for you. You are an important part of the process.
Unconditional love is prevalent in our culture.
We build and maintain relationships.
We don’t need to return to how we did things before, we are embracing the underlying principles of justice as lived by us.

Lillooet Indigenous Court Resource Library

The Lillooet Indigenous Court Navigator and Elder’s Coordinator has prepared these resources to inform community members what it takes to get into the court.

What is an Indigenous / First Nation’s court?

Cases Taken on by the Lillooet Indigenous Court – 2025