Adding Aboriginal name to controversial PEI site an ‘insult’ says Mi’kmaq leader

A member of the Mi’kmaq Nation traditional government says adding an Indigenous name to a Prince Edward Island historic site that bears the name of a controversial British general is a “grave insult” to his people.

John Joe Sark says he is unsatisfied with Parks Canada’s recent decision to add the Mi’kmaq name “skmaqn” to the Port-la-Joye-Fort Amherst National Historic Site, which is near Charlottetown.

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Catherine McKenna, the federal minister responsible for Parks Canada, issued a statement on Friday confirming the official name of the site will now be Skmaqn-Port-la-Joye-Fort Amherst National Historic Site of Canada.

Sark says putting a Mi’kmaq name alongside that of General Jeffrey Amherst is “demeaning” given his contention that the British military commander tried to wipe out the Mi’kmaq by giving them smallpox-infected blankets.

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McKenna said Friday that skmaqn, which means the “waiting place,” is thought to have its origins in the mid-1700s when Mi’kmaq and French leaders met annually at the site to renew their military alliance.

She has said the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada is making the change on the recommendation of the Mi’kmaq Confederacy of Prince Edward Island.