The Nlaka’pamux Nation Tribal Council (NNTC) has purchased the 10,700-acre Ashcroft Ranch from Metro Vancouver for $28 million.
The purchase was made for fair market value through a competitive bid process by the NNTC’s economic branch, Kntam a shaytknmahh: We Help the People Limited Partnership. A news release said that the transfer was completed and registered in the land title office on April 2, 2025.
Metro Vancouver purchased Ashcroft Ranch in 2000 with a plan to develop a portion of the ranch as a landfill to provide long-term waste disposal capacity for the region when the then-operating Cache Creek Landfill reached the end of its life in 2016. However, in the intervening years Metro Vancouver renewed its focus on waste reduction and recycling, and no longer deemed a new landfill necessary.
The property has been operated as a cattle ranch for the last 25 years, and Chief Matt Pasco, chair of the NNTC, tells the Journal that the plan is to continue running cattle on the property for the time being.
“For short-term plans we need to get a feel for what’s going on there in an operational sense and make sure things move along smoothly as they are now. We have plans to move towards food sovereignty, and we want more vertical integration with what’s produced on the ranch. Vegetables aren’t being planted there right now, and we want to get into that and get closer to the end user.”
Pasco adds that it will also help the Nlaka’pamux have healthier food options and allow more local supply for the people of B.C. “A lot of our food comes from long distances, and we’ve learned a lot about problems that exist if we’re not more mindful of the food chain.”
The land comprising the Ashcroft Ranch was an important village, shTLasht, and gathering site, Klooch Field, for the Nlaka’pamux. In 1862 brothers Henry and Clement Cornwall emigrated from England and settled in the area, calling their 6,000 acre property Ashcroft, after their ancestral home in Gloucestershire. They ran 1,500 head of cattle on it, and also built houses, a grist mill, and a roadhouse, which opened in 1863 and still stands.
The press release noted that the return of the land to the Nlaka’pamux will see the area go back to being an inclusive community hub. Pasco says that it will definitely be a place of gathering once more.
“We plan on having a much greater community feel to it. We’d like to put a community hub in place; a place for Nlaka’pamux people to go in case of fires and other disasters where safety is important. Indigenous people can be the most impacted [by disasters] and have the fewest number of places to go, and a community hub can play a role in that.”
Pasco adds that he wants to blend Nlaka’pamux values with community needs, and reach out to others. “We have the Secwépemc to the north of us. We have friends and relatives there, and this has always been a gathering area, so we want to work with them as well, try to bring back some of those old traditional values and old relationships.”
There are plans to include housing, recreation, education, medical facilities, Elder care, and an Nlaka’pamux cultural centre at the site. Pasco notes that it’s important for youth and Elders to be able to spend time and do activities together, and also points to the fact that many Nlaka’pamux Elders must leave their homeland once they are unable to live on their own.
“I find it deeply wrong that we can have some of the biggest projects in our homeland, like Highland Valley Copper, and they and the province get to take the resources from our homeland and take money from that and put it into health care, but our Elders have to leave. We want to work hard to build some amenities, like assisted living and youth activities, and make sure family constructs stay together for as long as possible. Children need to be with grandparents and great-grandparents.
“When combined with food sovereignty I believe we have a winning combination. I get that it will be hard, but it’s necessary, and I look forward to what that looks like.”
Pasco also notes the importance of the site when it comes to education and research.
“We want to partner with agriculture, forestry, grow traditional plants, and having the land base to do that will be invaluable. There’s so much science does not understand about fires and restoration. There’s lots to be learned in those areas, and we believe we can play an active role in learning more about those things and creating best practices.”
The intention, says Pasco, is to do good things for all Nlaka’pamux, and the purchase of the Ashcroft Ranch property is a good step in that direction.
“There are better options for garbage than what Metro Vancouver initially proposed. If something is massively impactful to the land then it’s massively impactful to those who live there. Now that we own the ranch we can show how disciplined and thoughtful and principled our group is.”
It all comes down, he says, to the fundamental law of the Nlaka’pamux.
“Take care of the land, and the land will take care of you.”
