Secwépemc stewardship reshapes 53-million-year-old forest 

Seven years after taking the internationally renowned McAbee Fossil Beds back from the province, members of St’uxwtéws Bonaparte First Nation, as title holders and stewards, are continuing to shape a vision that combines paleontological research with Secwépemc culture.

The handoff in 2019 came after the site had been closed to the public for several years due to conservation concerns, placing one of British Columbia’s most celebrated fossil deposits under Indigenous management and opening the door to a new approach rooted in both science and community history.

The fossils found at the McAbee site are primarily well-preserved plants, such as rare Ginkgo biloba, insects, fish such as the oldest known fossil salmonidae, and birds from the Eocene Epoch period. Sitting in the unceded territory of the St’uxwtews within Secwépemcúl’ecw, the site contains fossils from a former forest identified as more than 53 million years old.

As St’uxwtéws Bonaparte First Nation looks ahead, Kukpi7 Frank Antoine says the focus is on ensuring McAbee remains both a place of scientific importance and a reflection of Secwépemc values and history. 

“I’m very happy that finally we brought the five First Nations communities together to work for the history there,” Antoine says, referring to the collaboration with neighbouring Secwépemc governments through the St’uxwtews Pesuten Heritage Society. 

“Nobody’s fighting, it’s about shared territories… It’s not about being different, it’s about working together. It’s not a political thing, it’s a community thing.”

As visitors return to the McAbee Fossil Beds this summer since the re-opening in May, Secwépemc leaders are working to ensure the internationally recognized site tells not only the story of ancient fossils, but also the enduring relationship between people and the land.

Antoine is collaboratively working on procuring approximately $80 million in funding with other Secwépemc leaders and Thompson Rivers University’s paleontology team to build a cultural centre set into the earth like a traditional St’uxwtews winter home, or pit house, to showcase both the historical and cultural history of the prominent McAbee site.

He hopes to improve the colonial framework and descriptions starting with sharing knowledge about traditional winter homes that brought families and communities together, which is called Kwséltktenin in the Secwepemctsín language.

A new sign at the trailhead welcomes visitors, explaining, “extended family groups travelled across the territory to hunt and gather resources for food, medicine and shelter,” just one example of education for families and all ages to enjoy. 

With QR codes on the hiking trails signage, visitors can learn about the culture and science as they walk the hiking trails.

Antoine is hopeful that weaving Indigenous knowledge systems together with scientific artifacts and research will support inclusive learning opportunities for generations to come.

“When you walk into paleontology, people see the past, the external side of that, but my goal is kind of like Jurassic Park,” Antoine says. “You know when you walk in and see the different timelines on Earth.” 

“We want to start showing the timelines of how we were, and how we got involved, so when you walk into the winter home, which is an underground home, [you’re] actually walking back into the earth,” Antoine explains.

Ancient land, living knowledge 

When Adrian Lewis visited the McAbee Fossil site five years ago, the landscape and traditional medicinal plants of Secwépemcúl’ecw captured his attention right away.

As the McAbee Fossil Beds site manager, he has immersed himself in learning about the community’s traditional plants and builds the trail network that visitors access at the site today. 

By October of 2022, the trail system at McAbee was well-established and Lewis began offering tours of the area to educate visitors on medicinal and edible plants, paleontology, geology, First Nations’ and settler histories and local wildlife. Part of his responsibilities as the site manager include raising awareness about rattlesnakes, bears, coyotes and birds that pass through the area. 

Today, Lewis lives on-site during the summer to provide security and serves the community as one of the site’s most recognizable stewards.

“He’s a pioneer of that site,” Antoine says. “He lives in our territory, and he’s a big part of our community. He’s not a band member, but he is a community member, and that’s just as powerful.”

Learning the scientific names of the fossils found at the site is an ongoing process, Lewis says. But helping the community to both identify fossils and build additional trail systems is an ongoing effort he’s passionate about.

“I’m from the coast and I know about the medicinal edible plants on the coast and throughout this way. Here, it’s a semi-desert environment. It was completely new,” Lewis said. “I was a greenhorn completely, so you got to go out and buy books, study online, but the best knowledge that I got was from the local Elders [and Knowledge Keepers] from the Bonaparte First Nations who came out here.”

The goals of the visually striking historical site includes Indigenous archeology that are driven by the needs, values and worldviews of the community. Beyond artifacts found throughout the park, the modern practice highlights the return and extraction of findings to descending communities, like the St’uxwtews.

While Lewis is not directly involved in the band’s strategic vision for the McAbee Fossil Site, he is constantly thinking about ways to improve access and enhance the visitor experience with the community.

“I would like to add on another 15 to 20 kilometers of trails onto the loop,” Lewis said, adding it would be nice to add a side-by-side tour to cater to those with accessibility needs.

Next summer, the community plans to break ground on the cultural centre near the site of a former pithouse slope discovery.

Antoine later added mobility aids for visitors of all abilities would be beneficial. Antoine is optimistic the tourism that draws visitors to the McAbee site will also drive traffic to surrounding communities, like Cache Creek, Spence’s Bridge, Ashcroft, Clinton and Walhachin.

“We’re looking at bike trails, we’re looking at all kinds of mobility,” Antoine said. “There’s all types of different types of trails that you can make out there because the roads are already there [behind the hoodoos], you don’t have to build them, you just gotta connect them.”

Welcoming visitors this season

The fossil site, which reopened May 1 and remains open until Sept. 30, is one of British Columbia’s most significant Eocene fossil deposits and was designated a Provincial Heritage Site on July 19, 2012. 

Visitors can hike four different routes: the Deep Time Loop Trail, the Hoodoo View Trail, the Connections Trail and the Desert Grasslands Trail. The total loop of the trail network stretches approximately eight kilometres with shorter options for families and schools who visit the site during the day.

Trail guide Brian Gross, who is employed through the Hat Creek branch of Bonaparte, estimates it takes up to three hours to see the entire trailhead at McAbee Fossil Fields. 

He greets visitors at the entrance of the site, collects admission and tracks statistics on visitors for the community and fields questions from visitors about the provincial heritage site.

“This season, we’ve had visitors from Belgium and four days ago, a paleontology group came out here,” Gross said at the site’s trailhead June 6. “We have schools visiting from Kamloops, Lillooet and near Williams Lake.”

The parking lot was flattened this season and signage to improve access of the site is slated to take place before the end of the year to improve awareness, he added.

“Provincial heritage sites, such as McAbee Fossil Beds, are treasured places of historical significance and an important part of our province’s story,” Anne Kang, Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport wrote in an emailed statement from her office. 

“As part of the B.C. government’s commitment to the ongoing care of heritage properties, the Province contracts with non-profit societies for the management of these sites. This includes providing public access, as well as ongoing conservation and maintenance, so that B.C.’s history can continue to be shared with residents and visitors, now and into the future.”

Visitors are welcome to tour the site on a self-guided basis between 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. during the summer or can schedule a guided tour for a group through mcabee-fossil@hatcreek.ca. 

The admission to view the historic site this season costs $20 per family (2 adults, 2 children), $10 for adults between the ages of 18 to 64 years old, $5 for seniors over the age of 65, $6 for children between the ages of six-to-17 years old, or free for children under the age of five. 

There is no admission charge for those who have valid status cards or Métis citizenship cards.