Quote:
Originally Posted by Thunderball
This is very sad. I normally sort of shrug at superficial grandstanding gestures like this, but this one really bothers me.
Fort Calgary was the basis of the first PERMANENT settlement in this area by any culture.
According to all aboriginal oral history I'm aware of, "the confluence" was an occasional stopover, hunting ground and possible meeting point, but nothing permanent was ever built or kept here (largely because the bands who are indigenous to this part of Alberta were largely nomadic). It is historical fact, not some sort of white jingoism that this was the catalyst for the formal settlement (unless I'm somehow mistaken and there was something permanent built before 1875, other than the Rouleau mission in 1872, a few ranches, and some dubious conjecture that Fort La Jonquiere was built at the confluence of the Bow and Elbow in the 1750s somehow).
It doesn't mean nothing pre-1875 matters (it very much does), but learning all history means remembering things like Fort Calgary too. It happened, and it should be remembered.
This type of "wokewashing" of history sadly contributes to the rise of dangerous populism and locally, some of the more extreme wings of the UCP. I imagine Marlaina is going to have a field day over this.
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Here's the thing.
The name Fort Calgary, kind of implies that the only history that matters, or that the place is built upon is that fort.
The name The Confluence, doesn't exclude Fort Calgary, nor does it exclude anything that existed there, before it.
The actual fort part will still be a part of the site, it's just not what it'll be named after.
I really dislike the position that rebranding something, to specifically include everything, rather than highlighting a specific part is somehow not remembering or erasing that specific part.
Also, if you're so concerned about the rise of dangerous populism, maybe using "Wokewashing" completely seriously, isn't the best place to start.
Seriously, rebranding to INCLUDE indigenous history does not equal erasing white history.