Letter to the Editor

There has been a lot of controversy around the renaming of Sam Steele Days to the Spirit of the Rockies.  I didn’t know much about Sam Steele before this happened, but I know a little more about him now.  I also understand the sentiment behind the name change, but also believe it was handled very badly.

The main reason I think it was handled badly is that there was no input from our community on this, at all.  But, what many of you reading this may not know is that our neighbouring ?aq’am community also was not involved in this decision.  I have had conversations with people in the community and was assured that Chief and Council were not consulted on this decision.  In a time when Truth and Reconciliation is such an important movement, it is neither truth, nor reconciliation, but instead knee-jerk virtue seeking that was behind this decision, in my opinion.

I do believe that Sam Steele is an important figure in history.  Through people like Sam Steele we can really understand the disgusting Victorian attitude to anyone who was not British or Western European.  If we actually know the history, and don’t want to whitewash the history, we can understand why people like Sam Steele and Colonel Baker are not actually heroes to our community, but instead barometers of how far we have grown, and the fact that the ?aq’am community was not consulted on this is an indication that we still have a lot of work to do to let go of our old colonial attitudes.

I know there was a lot of cries of “don’t erase our history.”  Unfortunately, most of those saying that actually mean, “don’t teach me history, I prefer the myth I was brought up with.”

Gerry Warner wrote an entire piece on wishing for willful ignorance.  The myth is much more comfortable; the history is uncomfortable, and this is why people like Mr. Warner would prefer we don’t erase myth by understanding truth.

If you want to really understand the history of Sam Steele and his relationship with the indigenous people of the East Kootenay, you should read the Thesis by Cranbrook’s own, Sean MacPherson; ‘Rising and Remembering: Ktunaxa History and Settler Mythology in the East Kootenay.’

You can find it online, published by the University of Victoria.  I am sure many people will not want to read or understand this, because they don’t want to erase the myth they are comfortable with.

Truth and Reconciliation. These are powerful words.  However, for me what is more powerful, is the idea that we are celebrating someone our neighbours consider a bully and an aid to a land swindler every June.  Keep in mind that this was a man who lived in this community for a total of one year, the summer of 1887 to the summer of 1888.  He was more of a visitor to the area than a “founding father.”

If we really want to embrace the history of this region, naming our celebration after someone who just passed through our area seems ridiculous to me. Shouldn’t we instead celebrate the people who have been a part of this amazing land for more than 10,000 years, as well as the cultures that have chosen to make this beautiful area a home in the last two centuries?

We should acknowledge the real history of this area and celebrate the beauty of this land we now share.  I personally don’t like the name Spirit of the Rockies; I would have advocated for something like “Spirit of the Kootenays,” but I, like everyone in our community, was not consulted or even given warning this was going to happen.  Perhaps we should have been given time to voice our opinions and ideas about the name change, and certainly our neighbours living at ?aq’am should have, because they are the deep history and spirit of this land we now live on.

Joel Huncar,

Cranbrook

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