Re: “Ancient harvest – newly discovered aboriginal village site will be paved over,” The Leader, June 20.

That it can be legal to pick over five per cent of an historic site and then nuke all of it is proof the law in this province is an absolute ass.

That First Nations were used in the dig is laudable; that they were all experts would have been better. One wonders what they missed, misinterpreted or damaged in the process of this very rushed dig. That First Nations were made to sign off on this thing for compensation that can never be adequate is just the same old trade bead exploitation they have suffered since we Europeans arrived.

We would never do this to a Roman ruin – to any comparable evidence of our European heritage which we flock overseas to idolize – proving once again that our Euro-racism, despite the pretense of our latest apology, is very much alive and well.

What’s most disturbing is the notion, expressed in the article, that one village site of a particular vintage was present. Likely other village sites/occupations from much earlier still await discovery which can never be.

In addition, the Katzie – as well as the Tsawwassen who are gung ho on South Fraser Perimeter Road, though it will pummel ancient native wet sites in Delta – are Salish. These are an Interior people who moved to the coast relatively recently, displacing a much earlier maritime culture with a different language and culture. They cannot thus be legitimately granted by the state the right to okay the demolition of another people’s remains. The Salish are not the first human nation on this portion of the West Coast, but the second, third, fourth or more before we European and Asian interlopers came along.

Don DeMille