‘I put a lot of hard work into what I own’: Vandals smash windshield of Fort St. John man’s Indigenous-inspired vehicle

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — A local Indigenous resident is appreciative of the positive messages he’s received from the community after his car was vandalized earlier this month.

Dan Prince has owned his Dodge Challenger since 2021 and it has a black exterior adorned with First Nations decals. 

He said his front windshield was smashed on Monday, May 12th. Since that time, an outpouring of support for Prince’s wheels has surfaced, including one resident who paid for the damage to be repaired.

Prince admits he “wasn’t a car guy” before purchasing the vehicle. While Prince says he had eagle art on his previous car, this art is more Indigenous-based. 

“Originally, it was actually originally to be white [decals] to go on [the] car and we were going to go with that,” said Prince. “I just changed my mind right before I took it in, and had to have a look to see if the people at the graphics shop could do it here because it looked like it was going to be a difficult project with many different shapes and directions.

“While I was there, I said, ‘you know what? Let’s check it out and see if maybe red will [look] better than white.’ They used photoshop and turned it to red. I really liked [both], but red really popped, so we went with red.”

Prince, who uses the car for both leisure and as the primary vehicle for his maintenance and renovation business, admits he rides his Challenger “pretty hard,” which includes several trips south as far as Kamloops.

Prince said he had made rounds on May 11th around the community, including dinner with friends and visiting a relative in the hospital.

“I had actually just got the car back from the shop,” said Prince. “We were at the hospital late. The next day, I didn’t even look at the car because we were so tired, we stayed home and didn’t really do much.

“I came out in the afternoon and there was an engine light that came up on the car again. So my mechanic came to take it, and when we went to go look at the car so they could take it, that’s when we noticed the windshield was all smashed.”

Prince took pictures of the damage and posted them to Facebook, writing: “It’s hard not to feel targeted as an act of racism, but you never really know.

“It was really hard to not feel like it was targeted. There have been quite a few people who did reach out about how they felt that I was ruining the car because I had native art on it.”

Prince, however, said he has also seen positive support from people who appreciate its distinctive design. 

As a member of the Haisla Nation in Kitimat, the eagle represents Prince’s ancestral house. He says he “puts a lot of ego and hard work on a lot of the things that [he owns] personally.”

“I never would have thought that so many people would have reached out and told me how much they love seeing it around town,” said Prince.

Prince says he reported the vandalism to the Fort St. John RCMP.  According to Prince, several residents have told him their vehicles, too, were vandalized recently. 

“I don’t like hearing about that,” said Prince. “But it did help me feel it wasn’t targeted, which made me feel better in a bittersweet kind of way.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Fort St. John RCMP at (250) 787-8100.