BOARD OF DIRECTORS Irene Gilbert—President Kerry Chelsea—Vice President Dora Demers—Treasurer Graham Leslie—Secretary Irvine Johnson—Director Alana Dixon—Director Harold Duncan—Director Canim Lake Tsq'escen First Nation

NORTHERN SECWEPEMC CULTURAL SOCIETY P.O. Box 553 108 Mile Ranch, B.C. V0K 2Z0 Canada Tel: 250.791.5433 grahamleslie@shaw.ca

Xat'sull / Soda Creek

Esketemc First Nation

Our Cultural Centre is Now Open to the Public

As detailed below, our new Cultural Centre was completed, and received its occupancy permit in September 2024. After remedying a few deficiencies, and making extensive preparations, we have hired Jennifer Michel as our Cultural Centre Manager and Terry Michie as her Assistant, and were able to advertise that were open to receive visitors starting on July 1, 2026. We are still searching for the funding that will enable us to create and display the world-class exhibits.

In the meantime, we have been hosting visitors whose curiosity has drawn them to our award-winning building and groups of school children, all of whom have been able to view the growing collection of Northern Secwepemc artifacts we have assembled and put on display. Our exhibit design consultants, working with our Society, have created some impressive outdoor signage that tells the story of both the pre-contact culture and way of life of the Northern Secwepemc people, and also of the impact of contact with Europeans. Inside the building, in addition to the artifacts, are 16 banners that describe our journey to this point and explain what we hope to display in due course once we have secured the necessary funding.

For those visiting the Cultural Centre, we will charge a modest entry fee for the period before we can offer our final array of exhibits We are aiming to engage guides, storytellers and entertainers from our member communities, who from time to time can add to the pleasure of visiting the Centre. We are overjoyed to be able to welcome visitors, and look forward to hosting you soon. The story so far, in general

The Participating Northern Secwepemc First Nations

The Secwepemc Nation consists of 17 Bands of which five are located in the Cariboo region of British Columbia, and describe themselves as Northern Secwepemc. They are Tsq’escen (Canim Lake), Stswecem’c Xget’tem (Canoe Creek), Esk’etemc (Alkali Lake), Xat’sull (Soda Creek) and T’exec (Williams Lake). All five were among the founding members of the Northern Secwepemc Cultural Society when it was incorporated in July 2006, and have maintained active membership ever since.

All five Bands are represented on the Society by two appointees, each of whom is entitled to one vote, and are currently joined by two non-voting representatives of the 100 Mile House & District Historical Society. A board of six directors is comprised of one member from each of the six constituent bodies, but has met infrequently on account of the fact that almost all business is conducted by the full membership. The current officers and directors are listed on each page of this website.

The purposes of the Society are:

• to gather and preserve information, records and objects of educational, historical and cultural value associated with the participating Indian Bands, and without limiting the generality of the foregoing.
  
  
• to establish and maintain a museum for the purpose of preserving, recording and exhibiting such materials for the education and enjoyment of the general public and for the general benefit of the members of the participating Indian Bands.

The story so far, in general:

In early 2003 the five Bands were invited by the 100 Mile House & District Historical Society to consider participating with that society in an effort to incorporate First Nations history and culture in some unspecified way, into its site at the 108 Mile Lake in the South Cariboo region of British Columbia. Three of the Bands immediately agreed to work with the Historical Society towards that end.

From early 2004 until July 2006, acting informally but with approval in principle from the three of the five Band Councils, a small group of representatives from those three Nations and the Historical Society decided that a proposed site at the 108 Mile Lake was appropriate and suitable as the location for a cultural centre and small museum. They carried out preliminary work by way of a topographic survey and an archaeological assessment of the site.

By 2006 the remaining two Nations had joined the group. In July of that year the Northern Secwepemc Cultural Society was incorporated. Since then the Society acquired a suitable piece of land on a 99-year lease basis, commissioned a further topographic survey, an environmental site assessment, a major feasibility study, a comprehensive business plan and, successive reports from its architects, namely a conceptual design, a design develop report and finally the construction documents required in order to go to tender for the actual construction of a 5,145 square foot building.

In 2018 the Society obtained the funding that enabled it to commission an outstanding exhibit design consulting team to start working with its five member Nations on the task of identifying the stories, objects and programs that they wish to share with visitors in the proposed new Centre once it opens. A final report containing a roadmap for the preparation of those exhibits was received in April 2019 and was shared with the Society’s member communities at the end of June 2019.

A series of further grants obtained from the federal Department of Canadian Heritage, and starting in early 2021, enabled the Society to engage its exhibit design consultants to continue with the development of the stories and programming ideas identified in the earlier roadmap report. The first grant enabled the exhibit design team to work with the Canim Lake Band—Tsq’escen First Nation—during the 2021/2022 fiscal year, and resulted in a widely acclaimed report that has guided the Society into the future. Subsequent grants funded similar reports for the Stswecem’c Xget’tem First Nation in the 2022/2023 fiscal year and with Esk’etemc in 2023/2024.

In early 2022, we received the first of several generous grants that enabled the Society to carry out the construction of its new cultural centre on the site it had previously acquired. This first grant was in the amount of $4 million, and was provided by the federal Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations (CIRNAC) whose then Minister, the Hon. Marc Miller, visited the site later that year to present us with the cheque. That donation was followed by a grant in the amount of $300,000 from the Northern Development Initiative Trust, and between them they allowed us to proceed with preparations for the site development and construction of our actual building, However, as construction costs rose dramatically and overran our carefully prepared budget, we were the grateful recipients of a further $1,236,000 from CIRNAC and two grants from the federal Department of Canadian Heritage in the combined amount of $850,000.

In May 2023, we started construction of our new cultural centre, and under the skilful management of Alfred Horie Construction Ltd., the construction management company recommended by our exceptional architects McFarland Marceau Architects, the building was completed and we received our occupancy permit in September 2024.

We are proud to report that in late 2025, McFarland Marceau Architects was honoured by the Architectural Institute of B.C. with the Lieutenant Governor’s award for B.C.’s outstanding architectural design of the three- year period from mid-2023 to mid-2025, and the design in question was our beautiful cultural centre.

A more detailed account of the Society’s efforts is set out on the page entitled The Project. It includes beginning construction, which is covered on the page entitled Museum Groundbreaking.

Before leaving this page, however, we wish to acknowledge with sincere gratitude the sources of funding that have enabled the Society to reach the stage at which it is possible to visualize success in its efforts. They are in the chronological order in which the grants were received: the five participating Bands, the Northern Development Initiative Trust, the Cariboo Regional District, the Union of B.C. Municipalities, the Department of Canadian Heritage, Western Economic Diversification Canada, Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, New Pathways to Gold Society, Cariboo-Chilcotin Beetle Action Coalition and B.C. Rural Dividend Fund.

LEASE AGREEMENT - October 14, 2014

CEREMONY
On the bright sunny morning of October 14th, a simple ceremony was conducted on the site of the proposed cultural centre and museum.
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THANKS
We take this opportunity to express our thanks very publicly to numerous individuals and groups that have supported our Society throughout the past almost 11 years, all of whom have helped us reach the important milestone we are celebrating today.
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