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Tara Armstrong (L) Dallas Brodie (R)

The Lower Similkameen Indian Band chief, council, and community issued a statement on Friday, decrying the joint declaration made by a group of MLAs on Indigenous sovereignty.

"The Chief, Council, and the entire community wish to denounce the blatant racist comments and stances issued via letter by Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream MLA Tara Armstrong, and Quilchena-Vancouver MLA Dallas Brodie," the LSIB said in a statement on Friday.

Armstrong and Brodie issued a joint statement Tuesday acknowledging the Penticton Indian Band's recent call for their resignation.

In March, Armstrong and Jordan Kealy announced they would be leaving their party, in response to Conservative leader John Rustad kicking Brodie from caucus.

Rustad said at the time he kicked Brodie out of the party because of her decision to “publicly mock and belittle testimony from former residential school students, including by mimicking individuals recounting stories of abuses.”

Other local Indigenous leaders have already expressed their anger towards Brodie's comments.

The local area MLA for the PIB, Amelia Boultbee, previously stated she was happy to see one of her former colleague get the boot from the Conservative Party of BC and reiterated that she stands “in solidarity” with all those affected by residential schools, and in particular with the Penticton Indian Band.”

The LSIB take issue with the MLAs' recent comments regarding an “unfounded sovereignty claim."

Indigenous leaders have stated that Armstrong and Brodie have "falsely portrayed Indigenous sovereignty as a threat to British Columbia’s prosperity."

The band added that the MLAs' claims that the province's rising cost of living is due to "billions of dollars" going to Indigenous communities is "disturbing, vicious, outright garbage, from two people who allege they 'serve all British Columbians.'"

"The deepening racial conflict noted in the letter signed by both MLAs is perpetuated by their actions and comments, not by reconciliation and understanding," the LSIB added.

The band is echoing the Penticton Indian Band and the Okanagan Nation Alliance's call for the resignation of both Armstrong and Brodie.

"Their words, actions, and excuses are anything but honourable," they added.

The band said statements by the MLAs, referring to how British Columbia in 1871 "saw no need to recognize Aboriginal title or sovereignty and resisted the creation of reserves for fear of excluding Indigenous people from public life" referenced a time where inequality was even greater.

"Indians, women, settlers, and immigrants were not equals in 1871 society," the LSIB said.