A rancherie is a

First Nations First nations are indigenous settlers or bands. First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to: Indigenous groups *List of Indigenous peoples *First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...

residential area of an

Indian reserve In Canada, an Indian reserve () or First Nations reserve () is defined by the '' Indian Act'' as a "tract of land, the legal title to which is vested in Her Majesty, that has been set apart by Her Majesty for the use and benefit of a band." ...

in colloquial English throughout the

Canadian province Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Constitution of Canada, Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North Amer ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

. Originating in an adaptation of ''

ranchería The Spanish word ranchería, or rancherío, refers to a small, rural settlement. In the Americas the term was applied to Indigenous peoples of the Americas, native villages or bunkhouses. Anglo-Americans adopted the term with both these meaning ...

'', a Californian term for the residential area of a '' rancho'', where most farm hands were aboriginal, the term later came to be used throughout British Columbia. In modern usage it is often a new residential area, but traditionally it is the oldest group of residences, typically log cabins or similar, generally clustered around a church. In some reserves where there is more than one residential area, "the rancherie" would mean a specific one of the group, typically the oldest. Rancherie does not refer to the whole of a reserve, or of a group of reserves run by a band government, but only to the community area so designated. The term is also in wide use outside of First Nations peoples, and is generally part of the vernacular in most small British Columbia towns with adjacent or contiguous Indian Reserves, with little or no derogatory overtones.

The Kanaka Rancherie

Historically the term could also be used for certain non-aboriginal (but also non-white, mostly) communities, most notably the Kanaka Rancherie on

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

's Lost Lagoon, which was the core of the local Hawaiian community since the earliest days of Gastown, its remnants - also known as the Cherry Orchard - lasting well into the 1920s.

References

History of British Columbia Indian reserves in British Columbia First Nations culture in Canada History of Indigenous peoples of North America {{BritishColumbia-stub

The Kanaka Rancherie

See also

References