Sign of the Times
New sign is put into place – image courtesy City of Prince George
Prince George, B.C. – Just two days before the Canada Day celebrations at Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park, the new park sign has been installed.City Council approved the name change on June 15th of last year, but the new signage was just installed this afternoon.
The renaming of the park from Fort George Park, has sparked a great deal of controversy in the community with some residents complaining there should have been public consultation on the matter.
At the time of the renaming, Councillor Murry Krause, who had worked with the Lheidli T’enneh on the issue, told his Council colleagues it was a move made in the spirit of reconciliation “I really do believe that acts of reconciliation need to be extraordinary in order to be sincere ” said Councillor Krause. He said the inclusion of the word ‘Memorial’ was a request by Chief Dominic Frederick because of the known cemetery that is located on the property and the fact there may well be many more Lheidli graves there than have already been identified. Krause said the real shame is that the history of the City has doesn’t tell the story of how the Lheidli people were forced from that site and their homes burned.
The renaming of the park was unanimously supported by Prince George City Council.
Comments
” “I really do believe that acts of reconciliation need to be extraordinary in order to be sincere ” said Councillor Krause.” A name change isn’t really extraordinary. Giving the land back would be. IMHO.
If we give it back to them, will that then make them responsible for the maintenance and upkeep?
What maintenance and upkeep are you referring to – also; saying to “give back” is the same has saying “we took” the land. If you are referring by the way to maintaining roadways, parks etc. than I don’t imagine they would… I believe they were quite happy the way Canada was before it was “taken”.
Nice sign. I wonder what it cost.
Not as much as the land it sits on…. which no longer belongs to them btw.
In aboriginal tradition, we don’t own the land, we belong to it.
Let me get that straight.
If I belonged TO the land, the land owes me support me and the same for others who belong TO the land.
If I belonged ON the land, I would have to share the land with others who also belong ON the land.
Beside that, I am not sure how a human or any other living organism can belong to an inanimate construct of the human mind and possibly other sentient minds.
My information, from a historian is that the Chief at the time sold this land.
The band was forced to sell the land.
the slimey move by hall and councillors to change the name.. They are supposed to represent us.. But they didn’t..
Call it what you want. Does that change anything..NO. Makes maybe 0.000001% of the population mildly happy..but the native demands won’t change..they will still want to hold us for ransom for things that happened to them by as a small percentage of Canadians.
PVal . Don’t ever go to Hawaii. It would put you over the edge .
I have been to Hawaii, and loved it.. But the big difference there is they became part of the states.. Here the big difference is the natives came here from Asia..and the Vikings came as well.. Everyone here is an immigrant..
Ataloss, you went to Hawaii? Really?
I’m both shocked and surprised! Aren’t you at all concerned about your carbon footprint, flying all the way there on a fossil fuel powered jet spewing CO2 all the way there and back?
Shame on you Ataloss, shame on you!
I’m going to report you to David Suzuki, Neil Young, Elizabeth May and Al Gore! Oh wait, they burn more fossil fuel than any of us!
WHO is “”us””???… A lot of Natives own property and work and own businesses and pay all the taxes too. Just because you are Metis, is no reason to discriminate against the Natives in this area
The Vikings came and left so I’m not sure why that is worth mentioning. Also not sure why a park name change has you in such a tizzy.
This place was inhabited so they left out of respect to the population.
Too far form home to engage in a war they would not win. ;-)
They stayed in Greenland instead since it was uninhabited and the fishing was great.
I’m not sure why the Vikings gets so much attention. They were nothing more than thugs. Viking literally means sea-rover or pirate. They left because there was nothing in Newf to plunder.
I see that your loyalty must lie with Great Britain and Ireland. If your loyalty does in fact lie with Canada than why not name it what it has been named. There are a ridiculous amount of “Native” named provinces, cities, parks, bridges etc. etc. etc. in Canada but you fail to accept this one apparently.. even the Country itself is a “Native” word… lame.
Hmmmm…….they spelled “Fort George Park” wrong…….
Broke keyboard maybe?
Doesn’t Matter too me it is and always forever will be Fort George Park
to appease all it could have been called Fort George Lheidli T’enneh Park. Nice sound to it and both names are recognized. Lots of wood around , a new sign can be made.
How many of them will volunteer and help out on Canada day? Probably the same as last year.. 1.
“Them” ?????
Wow, this is quite the collection of sad, poorly educated bigots you’ve attracted to your site, 250. Do you think it’s a product of your reporting or just your inability to moderate? Sad.
Moderate or Censor? You seem to think that people who have different opinions to you or even maybe offensive to you should not be heard.
Not the fault of 250, they do a great job in reporting local stories. I do cringe when I see a story about First Nations open for commenting because I know it will be filled with bigoted tripe. Whining about a name change like it’s a personal insult.
It’s a stupid name change, get over it.
mr. krause is pandering to a minority group.
metalman.
Do I understand correctly that PVal likes Hawaii because it is part of the states but dislikes the park because it is part of Canada? Not very patriotic.
And are you suggesting, PVal, that everyone in Canada is ultimately an immigrant but that the Hawaiians were created in Hawaii? You do know that the Hawaiians are homo sapiens just like us, almost certainly originally from East Africa, and that Hawaii was only settled about 1500 years ago?
Natives, early Asian immigrants, there settled.
How come it’s never mentioned about the natives warring among themselves. Two local native groups still hold ill will toward each other. Will the Haida that plundered up and down the coast hold any reconciliation talks?
What if it was someone like Genghis Khan had invaded north America? Wonder what that result would have been?
Given that the results of the Mongol invasion of eastern Europe in the 13th century were for the warring European principalities to start cooperating to eventually defeat the Mongols, the same may have happened.
The southern civilizations in the Americas did rally to fight off the Spanish resulting in populations of mixed heritage.
The northern American experience was one of sharing the land more than armed conflict, resulting in the local culture dying rather than being assimilated into a population of mixed heritage. The metis, I think, reflect the southern Americas population transformation much more closely with respect to that aspect.
“The northern American experience was one of sharing the land more than armed conflict, resulting in the local culture dying rather than being assimilated into a population of mixed heritage.”
Please tell me you are kidding, lol. Clearly you have absolutely no education and have relied on the opinions of your peers over a few beers to many. I would be embarrassed to say this to anyone.
Clearly you must be blind when observing a large group of people in Canada and the northern parts of the US versus Mexico, Brazil and other countries in the central and southern American countries.
If that does not create your curiosity as to why there is a significant difference in the population ethnicity, then you may not have read such research as “Admixture and population structure in Mexican-Mestizos based on paternal lineages” – A 2012 study published by the Journal of Human Genetics.
That research found that the majority of the current Mexican population (≈93%) is mixed race to some degree. The study found that the Y-chromosome (paternal) ancestry of the average Mexican-Mestizo was predominantly European (64.9%), followed by Native American (30.8%), and African for the remainder.
The closest one can get to that extent of mixed ethnicity would be the Metis in Canada and parts of the USA.
In addition, if you do not think that the Canadian indigenous culture is dying, try counting the number of people who can speak the language of their ancestors.
Finally consider how many in Canada and the USA speak an indigenous language.
In Peru, for instance, about 13% of the population speak Quechua, the indigenous language of the Inca empire. Quechua was made made an official Peruvian language in 1975.
Back to doing some reading and perhaps some travelling for you before you make poorly thought out suggestions that others are not well educated.
I think people are missing the main part of the story.
It took the City a whole year to prepare a tender to design the sign, put it out to tender for its manufacture and install it.
The wheels of local government continue to turn at a very slow pace as always. ;-)
The City web pages are still filled with many references to Fort George Park. Some even have references to both the new and old name on the same page. The proof reading ability of those responsible for web site maintenance never ceases to amaze.
Some examples:
princegeorge.ca/cityliving/parks/destinationparks/pages/default.aspx
princegeorge.ca/environment/urbanforestry/trees/treeinventory/Pages/Default.aspx
princegeorge.ca/cityliving/trails/heritagerivertrails/Pages/Default.aspx
princegeorge.ca/cityhall/committees/heritage/Pages/Default.aspx
So in essence you want to remove all mention of the following words.
Fort George Park.
In that case, we erase history.
No reference to the Hudson’s Bay trading post called, wait for it.
Fort George!!!
There are a number of outstanding wooden signs around PG and this one adds to that list. I’m wondering who the signmaker is . . . Northern Capital Wood Products? Whoever it is, thanks!
Sorry to change the subject.
I am getting tired of the constant complaining regarding the name change. It happened people. Let it go.
“This just in…..The water fountain stopped working in the park”!!
“Damn name change….it’s still Fort George Park to me”.
“And in breaking news…..A young girl was sexually assaulted while walking in the park”.
“Damn name change….it’s still Fort George Park to me”.
We get it.
I grew up in Winnipeg. I spent many days at Assinaboine Park at the zoo and at the pavilion. A park named after the first nations of the area. Look at any city in Canada and you will find major parks named after the first nations that settled there.
I’d love to retire and move to Penticton. A jewel of a place in the South Okanagan. It’s name is derived from an Indian word “Pentaktin” which I think means something about the 2 lakes at either end of the town.
First Nations names are all over the map.
Yes but in this case it is all about politics,and a rewrite of history on that piece of land.Uldulation of the self-proclaimed political elite of this town.
How has history been rewritten?
Big deal!!!!
The original name for the nation’s capital was Bytown named for Colonel By.
It is now called Ottawa a name derived from the Algonquin word adawe, meaning “to trade”.
The word refers to the Indigenous Peoples who used the river to trade, hunt, fish, camp, harvest plants, ceremonies, and for other traditional uses. The first maps made of the area started to name the major river after these peoples.
So, we happen to live in a community which was settled by individuals who preferred to name places for people and places from their countries of origin. We now have some people who are arrogant enough to not give recognition to those who came before us.
Happy Canada Day. Or maybe Kanata Day (which is also a suburban area of Ottawa) which means “settlement”.
Sign, sign, everywhere a sign, Blockin’ out the scenery, breakin’ my mind
I was telling some visitors to visit the Klate-lee–Ten-eh Park. I doubt the found it.
If they are going to change names, how about we change the name “Prince George”. I’m not British. I don’t give two $hits about a member of the royal family from years ago. It means nothing to me or the town that I live in.
Think of the cost.
Question, where is the old sign? It should maybe be put on display in the museum as an artifact. Maybe it will be tucked away in the basement, out of site out of mind.
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