Sugar Cane

Sugar Cane is a First Nations Reserve, just 14 kilometers south of the City of Williams Lake. Its inhabitants are the T’exelcemc Band, better known as the Williams Lake Band.

This small community has within it many home-based businesses specializing in traditional arts and crafts; carvings, leatherwork, custom knives, basketry, and beadwork as well as caterers who prepare traditional cuisine such as wind-dried salmon, bannock, deer meat, berry desserts and preserves.

The highly revered elders of the Williams Lake Band have a wealth of knowledge and wisdom to share and do so through the time-honored art of story telling.

Heading back towards Williams Lake is the Chief William Heritage Site and RV Park with several serviced sites, a convenience store, gas station, and laundry facilities.

The site also features a spacious reconstructed pit house and an immense log and timber powwow arbor that seats over 1000 people. It is in this location that the Williams Lake Band hosts an annual powwow contest and an annual Father’s Day powwow.

The Chief Wil-Yum golf course is currently under construction and there are plans to build a traditional village site with an interpretive centre.

A visit to Sugar Cane and the Chief William Heritage sight will prove to be an enlightening cultural experience and an interesting look at the Central Cariboo’s First Nations heritage and current way of life.