CSIS investigated Gustafsen Lake standoff in 1995 ‘Native extremism’ probe, records show – CBC

Sep 12, 2025

Declassified documents bring new information — and questions — to light 30 years later

The heavily armed men surrounded the Sun Dancers in the pre-dawn darkness.

At 4 a.m. on Aug. 18, 1995, with camouflage, painted faces, M-16 rifles and snipers, the group crept through the foliage towards an armed First Nations encampment at Gustafsen Lake in the B.C. Interior, about 270 kilometres northeast of Vancouver.

The situation was already tense as the activists occupied part of a remote, privately owned cattle ranch, where they gathered to perform a Sun Dance ceremony in July but then refused to leave, claiming the land as unsurrendered Secwepemc territory.

Read More: https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/csis-gustafsen-lake-standoff-1.7624961