By Sonal Gupta, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada’s National Observer 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. By 2004, the western rattlesnake was listed as a threatened species. Since then, an Indigenous-led research program has been working to change the relationship between snakes and humans. The Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre, run…
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