The Editor:
Re: Is it time to rename Indian Arm? Port Moody thinks so (Sept. 30, 2022)
Rich for a place named Port Moody to get all sensitive about the name Indian Arm.
Does shocked Mayor Vagramov know who Colonel Richard Clement Moody was and the unending pains he caused?
During his four years in the new Colony of British Columbia, commanding the Royal Engineers who set up the land survey & title system, he defied orders and refused to recognize “Indians” as British subjects who could pre-empt and buy land. Parliament in London told him repeatedly to abide by the law. I’ve read their admonitions, plus every other document available about his treacheries.
He interpreted his orders to allot 10 acres to every "Indian" family, i.e. Dad, Mom, & close kin — as meaning whole tribes and nations. He bought for himself 1,200 acres of what's now Colony Farm, while "giving" the Kwikwetlem people 42 acres of cranberry bog.
Moody is one of the worst people in B.C. history for harming Indigenous people. Get real, Port Moody, and focus on changing the one name that really matters.
- Brenda Guild Gillespie, Salt Spring Island
