Tête Jaune Cache
Feature Type:Community - An unincorporated populated place, generally with a population of 50 or more, and having a recognized central area that might contain a post office, store and/or community hall, etc, intended for the use of the general public in the region.
Status: Official
Name Authority: BC Geographical Names Office
Pronounced: TAY-jon cash
Relative Location: NW of Valemount, E of Mount Robson Provincial Park, Cariboo Land District
Latitude-Longitude: 52°57'59"N, 119°25'49"W at the approximate population centre of this feature.
Datum: WGS84
NTS Map: 83D/14
Origin Notes and History:

Tête Jaune Cache (Post Office) adopted 17 January 1951 on Jasper Park (North) sheet, as labelled on Yellowhead map #262, 1916, and on BC map 3H, 1919. Form of name changed to Tête Jaune Cache (Settlement) in the 1973 Supplement to the 1965 BC Gazetteer. Form of name changed to Tête Jaune Cache (Community) 31 May 1983 on 83 D/14.

Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office

Tete Jaune Post Office was opened 23 April 1912 on Lot 6014. About 3 miles southeast along CNR, Henningville Post Office was opened 1 June 1913 on Lot480. Tete Jaune Post Office was closed 15 January 1917; Henningville Post Office was renamed Tete Jaune Cache Post Office, 1 July 1917. Relocated to Lot 6008 March 1948; by 1957 post office had been relocated back to Lot 489 (date of move not cited); post office was closed 20 January 1967.

Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office

"After a yellow-haired Indian or half-breed who, before crossing the mountains by the present Yellowhead Pass, cached his canoe, etc. at this point." (Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol VI, 1914-15). "Pierre Bostonais, called Tete Jaune, was an Iroquois of mixed blood who worked for the HBC and Northwest Co, 1816-1827. His brother's name was Baptiste." (Robson Valley Courier, 21 March 1984). "According to Malcolm McLeod, the trapper's name was Francois Decoigne, who was in charge of Jasper House in 1814." (Alberta Place Names, 1928).

Source: included with note

In 1820, Pierre Hatsinaton, a fair-haired free Iroquois nicknamed Tete Jaune ("yellow head"), guided a HBC party from St. Mary's Peace River, up Smoky River and across the Rocky Mountains to the forks of the Fraser River, where he left some of the furs en cache. (This was the first HBC party to cross the mountains into New Caledonia). The cache was at the westerly end of the pass through the mountains, which was also named after him. A third name that probably comes from him is that of the great peak nearby, Mount Robson, which was probably named by him after his superior, Colin Robertson (1783-1842), HBC officer in charge at St. Mary's in 1820.

Source: Provincial Archives of BC "Place Names File" compiled 1945-1950 by A.G. Harvey from various sources, with subsequent additions