By Aaron Hemens, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, IndigiNews This story is a collaboration between IndigiNews and The Narwhal. Nine-year-old John Smithers cradles a tiny burrowing owl in his hands, preparing to release it into the grasslands of Upper Nicola Band (UNB) territory. Like other young syilx people, he’s grown up hearing stories about the small birds of prey whose populations have plummeted in the region in the last century or so. The owls – known in syilx culture as guardians, guides or messengers – were “once a common element” in landscapes stretching from the southern Interior of “B.C.” all the way to Manitoba, according to “Canada’s” Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife. Now, burrowing owl sightings are rare. In 2003, the Government of Canada listed the burrowing owl as

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