Hat Creek Ranch (image credit - CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

HAT CREEK RANCH

Hat Creek Ranch opens for season with traditional stewards of the land back at the helm

May 1, 2024 | 6:00 PM

CACHE CREEK, B.C. — Eight years of hard work coming to fruition on Wednesday was cause for celebration, as the Hat Creek Ranch opened for the year with the Bonaparte First Nation retaking stewardship of its traditional lands.

“Like anything that you want that’s important, it takes time and it takes effort. The people here locally that really wanted to see this happen, especially my community, my elders, the local people here, really want to see that history come together again,” said Kukpi7 Frank Antoine of the Bonaparte First Nation.

Bonaparte is not alone in the undertaking, with Chief Antoine, who spent 10 years of his childhood on the ranch, bringing together several of the local First Nations communities to reclaim their land.

“This is a place where we crossroad from the north, west, east and south, so I got them all here. It’s really good to see that they want to be on our board. This is a proactive step for us to be from a political stance in terms of title and rights but also it’s the opportunity to develop economic development here,” said Antione.

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The baton was passed to the Bonaparte Heritage Society to take care of the ranch and McAbee Fossil Site following a successful proposal and support from the BC Heritage Branch.

“Big day for Bonaparte. I’m very happy for them and you could see the passion in the room with everybody and the dancing and the drumming — it’s a really big deal for them. I’m happy for them and the heritage branch is looking forward to being on the journey with them,” said director of the heritage branch with the B.C. Ministry of Arts, Rodger Tinney.

The contract awarded by the ministry to the Bonaparte First Nation and its heritage society — which includes a number of the surrounding first nation communities — allows them to run the two historic sites until 2030.

“By the time we hit 2030, it’s going to be pretty hard to take us away from what we will already be building. It’s that opportunity to work with the government and they are willing to work with us now, so that makes a big difference. This is that truth and reconciliation piece that we have to make sure we are working on — it’s truth and reconcili-action more than anything. And I am doing it from a tourism perspective,” added Antoine.

If you visit the Hat Creek Ranch this year, it will likely look exactly as you remember it with the band not planning to adjust the gold rush-era history. But the work will soon begin to bring a new vision to life.

“We are going to have a powwow arbour, we are definitely looking at a rodeo ground, for sure. We are looking at what they call, ‘Indian Relay Race.’ We are going to have a track similiar to the old KXA in Kamloops,” said Antoine. “We are going to have what they called back in the day, ‘Indian Days,’ but we will change that name. We will call it ‘The Gathering.’ As you heard, it’s a gathering place here so we will come up with an Indigenous name that is going to represent everybody who is a part of here.”

The historic site officially opened for the season on Wednesday with visitors able to check out the sites and learn the history through the summer.