Feds commit funding to Indigenous-led study of rattlesnake – Times Chronicle

Feb 3, 2026

By Sonal Gupta, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

For a long time, killing rattlesnakes was just a part of life in British Columbia’s South Okanagan. Jenna Bower, member of Okanagan Syilx Nation and Osoyoos Indian Band, said that her great-grandfather, now 93 years old, remembers that one of his first jobs was being paid to kill rattlesnakes when the area was first being cleared to make way for vineyards.

As new orchards and farms took over native grasslands, the rattlesnakes had to vacate their habitats. “Everyone saw them as a big problem,” Bower said.