As the granddaughters of pioneers Tom Hance and Nellie Verdier Hance--reputedly the Chilcotin's first white woman--Irene E. Bliss, Veera Bonner and Hazel Henry Litterick were raised by their mother Hattie Whitte who drove a six-horse freight wagon through Bull Canyon in the 1920s. The three sisters continued to live in the Cariboo-Chilcotin and co-wrote Chilcotin: Preserving Pioneer Memories (Heritage House, 1995; 2005) under the name of The Witte Sisters. This book arose from an out-of-print 1958 Centennial project published as History and Legends of the Chilcotin.

[FOR PHOTO, SEE BONNER ENTRY]

[BCBW 2005]