Re: “Paving history – or protecting it?”, The Leader, Aug. 30.
The South Fraser Perimeter Road could have easily been routed around these two very precious archeological treasure troves through already developed adjacent land.
But that would be unthinkable to the people who now run this province, because the road is mainly about developing as much land along the route as possible, including bog and farmland, versus losing any to archeology, history or nature.
These are very old, very special archeological sites documenting cultures which significantly predate the arrival on the coast from the B.C. Interior of the present Salish First Nations population.
Whether local Salish elected officials have agreed to their disruption and destruction is of little or no significance.
Since very ancient remains have been found in North America of white Europeans such as myself, today’s local First Nations are a blend of undoubtedly several different races and cultures, resulting from many different migrations, by sea as well as land.
At the time of the earliest documented settlement at these sites, we of northern European descent were likely culturally similar. I strongly feel that these remains are representative of, dear to, and generally ancestral to each and every one of us.
My own direct ancestors have been in North America for about 400 years.
Don DeMille
