If you think naming the Lheidli T'enneh as the host First Nation of the 2015 Canada Winter Games seems unnecessary and an excessive exercise in political correctness, you're out of touch.
Prince George sits on the traditional territory of the Lheidli T'enneh and no one disputes that. Not only does no one dispute that the Lheidli T'enneh were forced off their lands at the hub of the Fraser and Nechako Rivers to the village of Shelley, there is a blunt written description of that removal at the entrance to their cemetery in Fort George Park.
These days, it is seen as impolite to not acknowledge that we are all on the traditional territory of the Lheidli T'enneh at any public gathering.
Chief Dominic Frederick is often invited to bring greetings on behalf of his people at these events.
Anyone who has heard Chief Frederick speak knows he takes to the podium with no notes and the words come straight from his heart. While he is pleased to be included, he often takes the opportunity to remind guests that he and his people are at the centre of Prince George life in every respect, not just a side attraction or a historical footnote.
More and more residents of Prince George accept that, a noble sign of this city's evolution. As Prince George approaches its centennial, there's no time like the present to acknowledge that the history of the peoples of this area did not begin when explorers of European descent first arrived. It is much older, much richer and it belongs to the Lheidli T'enneh.
According to Winter Games officials, Prince George will be the first every Canadian city to recognize a host First Nation and, like the Lheidli T'enneh presence in Prince George, it is not a token acknowledgement. Carrier language symbols are now featured on the Winter Games building downtown and will be used in Games literature and signage, right along with English and French. There will also be events hosted by the Lheidli T'enneh during the Games.
A few years ago, I wrote an opinion piece encouraging Prince George to go one step further and, with the permission of Chief Frederick and his people, rename the city Lheidli T'enneh. The meaning - "the people where the two rivers flow together" - applies to all of us and is far more suitable than Prince George, an update on Fort George and a recognition of the fourth son of King George V at the time of the city's founding in 1915.
Prince George never visited here before he died in 1942, so why keep the name?
On the flip side, there are plenty of precedents of renaming Canadian geographical areas to recognize their aboriginal heritage.
The Queen Charlotte Island are now known as Haida Gwaii. And we're out of step with Kelowna ("grizzly bear"), Penticton ("permanent place") and Nanaimo ("great people").
Still in B.C., Winfield, Oyama and Okanagan Centre were recently folded into one large community known as Lake Country.
In the Arctic, Iqaluit used to be Frobisher Bay and Tuktoyaktuk was once known as Port Brabant.
Wouldn't that be something if Prince George, with the national spotlight shining on it in February 2015, announced that it would no longer be named after a long forgotten member of English royalty but with a phrase appropriate for us in a language tied to this region and its people?
It's a crazy idea but it's no more unusual (or painfully obvious) than making the Lheidli T'enneh the host First Nation and co-host of the Canada Winter Games.
