Time to rename lake and honour Indigenous history

Did you know that June is Indigenous History Month? Not many people do. It’s a well-kept secret.

But if you start to consider it, about 95 per cent of Canada’s history is Indigenous. The first Europeans to come to Turtle Island were the Vikings back in the 10th century, but their stay was short, and they made little impact. In 1497 John Cabot discovered the east coast of the country and named it New Found Land. Talk about an original name. After that, the French and English fought over the spoils — or as Voltaire called it, a few acres of snow.

In any event, the glaciers receded about 10,000 years ago, and our people moved north. The past 500 years have seen European settlement mainly in the east. So, I give them about five per cent of the country’s history.

A lot happened over the intervening 9,500 years, as places like Wanuskewin and other historical sites have shown. But somehow this was simply set aside when the plains were cleared for settlement and the new empty land was claimed by the newcomers.

In Saskatchewan and Western Canada, towns and other places are named after the first postmaster, railway officials and European cities for homesick settlers — Aberdeen and Amsterdam, for example. Only a few towns are named after First Nations leaders; Cutknife and Piapot come to mind.

Saskatchewan is a white Eurocentric province where settlers named towns after themselves. Indigenous place names were lost. Colonialism assumes that white Europeans are the first and most important inhabitants, so everyone else is subservient.

Some of the First Nations names that survived were pejorative or simply racist. Take Killsquaw Lake, for example. This lake sits to the east of the town of Unity and has a racist name that is out of place in a modern context.

To dissect this story, we have to look at two factors: first, the origin of the term “squaw” and the history of the surrounding countryside.

“Squaw” is a derivation of the Cree/Algonquin word “esquew” for a woman. The early fur traders and explorers couldn’t pronounce many of our words, so they simply put their spin on it.

So esquew went from meaning women, who played an important role in the community and had status and respect, to something that was seen by the white people as less than human.

Second, war broke out in the 1860s between the Cree and Blackfoot nations. The great herds of buffalo were beginning to dwindle, and there was competition for land and the buffalo hunting grounds.

Alphonse Littlepoplar interviewed Antione Lonesinger in 1972; a copy of the transcript is available from the provincial archives. Lonesinger was born in 1888 on the Red Pheasant reserve and later moved to Sweetgrass reserve. He was respected as a good storyteller.

He told Littlepoplar that the Cree used to camp near the site of the town of Unity, where there was a spring with good water. The local lake was a shallow alkali lake and not good for anything.

One day a group of women left the camp and went to the spring for water. While they were there they were attacked by a Blackfoot hunting party.

The women ran back to the camp and one young woman who was a fast runner called the warriors, who quickly took chase.

The Cree warriors chased the Blackfoot all the way to the present-day site of the town of Macklin, where they lost them and returned to the camp.

Back at the camp, many women had been killed and the people were in mourning. They buried the dead and moved on. From that time on, the lake has been called “the place where the women were killed.”

Today it’s named Killsquaw Lake, which is jarring for First Nations people.

In this time of political correctness and reconciliation, it’s time for a name change and a recognition of our history. It’s not like it hasn’t been done before.

Thunder Rapids used to be called Squaw Rapids, and the power plant that once carried the same name is now named the E.B. Campbell Hydroelectric Station.

I would recommend that people from the provincial government and the town of Unity meet with the local First Nations and come up with a proper name that respects our culture and history.