Planned heritage park in Cariboo would damage culturally significant site, First Nation says

Plans for a heritage park in B.C.'s Interior have become a source of tension between a heritage society and the Williams Lake Indian Band. 

The Cariboo Heritage Park Society wants to move the historic 153 Mile store, currently located in the middle of a working ranch, to a more visible seven-acre parcel of land on Pinchbeck Hill in Williams Lake, B.C., and plans to build a heritage park around it. 

But the band says that spot is the location of an old pit-house, meaning it is of great cultural significance to their community. 

Chief Willie Sellars said it's one of the last such sites in the whole region.

"It's been there for hundreds, if not thousands, of years,"​​​​​​ Sellars told Daybreak Kamloops host Shelley Joyce. 

While the band believes the planned location for the park is inappropriate, that doesn't necessarily mean it doesn't want the project to move forward. Sellars said the band has suggested other spots for the store and the park, but said there hasn't been any interest from the society or the City of Williams Lake.

"The educational piece around promoting cultural heritage in this region, in B.C. and Canada, is something that First Nations are starting to push and promote," Sellars said.

"Moving forward with the implementation of UNDRIP, with the reconciliation discussions that continue to happen and protecting that is a big part of what healing is."

The society says the piece of land it's earmarked is the best fit — other sites are contaminated or aren't big enough to support the heritage park they'd like to build around the store.

It also argues there is no hard evidence that the land is what the band says it is. 

"It has not been proven to us that it is a pit house," society president Anita Crosina said. "As far as we know, it could have been a cache or a fire pit."

Crosina said the society hired Williams Lake Indian Band archaeologists to study the area, but the work was never completed because there was concern about conflict of interest.  

Without the results of that study, the society can't get a permit to develop the area.

Although Sellars said the seven-acre area is potentially large enough to both preserve the site and house the store, he is concerned that the site would be damaged during the construction of the park. 

Crosina said the property is not level and some earth would need to be moved for some buildings and a parking lot. 

Both parties express issues with communication around the project.

"I think we can work something out with them if they'll talk to us," Crosina said.