Wichispa Oyade? Alberta First Nations group seeks to rename Calgary

Canada isn't immune to First Nations lunacy.

If a group of First Nations get their wish, Calgary will be renamed Wichispa Oyade — Stoney Nakoda terms that roughly translate to mean elbow town.

The Stoney Nakoda have applied to have a long list of well-known places across southern Alberta changed to reflect traditional names given by their people.

Their application letter to the Alberta government also includes Canmore, the Bow River, Mount Allan and dozens of other sites that they consider to be part of their territory.

*snip*

The First Nations argue that the English or Cree names many of these places have fail to reflect their specific Indigenous history.

“This lack of recognition contributes to an increasing threat that Stoney Nakoda heritage will be overrun.”

torontosun.com...

Sorry but that's already happened. Many native peoples are well knw, like the Cree but this is the first I've heard of the Nakoda.

There is precedent for renaming places. The Queen Charlotte Islands on BC's coast was renamed Haida Gwaii 7 years ago:

en.wikipedia.org...

Now I'm all for native rights but when things get to out of hand, by anyone really, I don't take the them seriously. I mean c'mon. Who's going to go to the Wichispa Oyade Stampede? Support the Wichispa Oyade Flames? Sorry but this history is written.

I fail to see the problem with this other than messing with people's preestablished familiarity...your closing paragraph illustrates my point perfectly.

Just because these places may be renamed, doesn't mean they're moving them to the moon.

Let them be appropriately honored.

a reply to: intrepid
As always with the Sun...it all comes out in the comments section.

My questions would be:

Did their crazy demands already did what they wanted? People are now talking about Nakoda. How many readers will google them now?

The skeptic in me wonders, how many people will now discover that they have a casino and go and spend their money there??

a reply to: intrepid

I lived in Calgary in the early 70's and was invited to watch the Stampede parade from a balcony in a large high rise on 16th Ave. The old guy used to own the land there and they provided him with a courtesy seat to the event . He told me that his sister was the first white woman in Calgary . Canada is not very old when you think about it . Its not that uncommon now a days to have names changed back to the original's as a consideration for First Nations . Who knows in another 100 years they may change it again to something like Lanny MacDonald or Tim Horton's .

I found some interest in this as my heritage is French/Canadian and Anishinaabe (which is Ojibwe/Chippewa; the Nakota were Asinaan or Assiniboin) on my fathers side.

I understand why they propose this change.

I think it would be wonderful if it was granted, however I understand the concern from a business view as far as branding goes. I also understand people don't like change. I do think it would be a beautiful and grand gesture to honor their heritage and history by doing this.

Probably won't happen though.

-Alee

I understand the desire to not change and 'rebrand' but why not have it like in Wales, where signage is in Welsh and English, seeing as the name wanted is in their language? Then the Calgary 'brand' can exhist and the first peoples name also exhists.

There's also a push on to rename the "Edmonton Eskimos" football team.

I can just imagine all those Natives living way up there on the shores of the Arctic ocean fuming with rage.

/sarc

a reply to: intrepid

I love this crap:

The First Nations argue that the English or Cree names many of these places have fail to reflect their specific Indigenous history.

Its always so important to preserve the history of a people that never progressed out of the stone age.

So Canadian Natives want everything named after them while in the US it's considered insulting to name things after Native Americans.

What a crazy world we live in.