The hand-carved cedar sign bearing the aboriginal name PKOLS was removed from the Mount Douglas summit by the Saanich parks department last week, sparking confusion and concern among First Nations supporters who say there was no proper warning.

Word of the missing sign started to spread Friday, with many wondering where it went, whether it had been stolen and if the removal was intended as a slight against First Nations.

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On Saturday morning, Saanich Mayor Frank Leonard chimed in and said the sign had been taken down for safety reasons and was in storage.

Leonard said the sign was unstable and that bolts used to secure it had penetrated the roof of an emergency telecommunications building, creating a situation where water could seep in with potential for damage.

“The lookout is on top of an electrical building. Whoever put the sign up probably didn’t know they were drilling through the roof,” Leonard said. “I’m sure they had good intentions.”

The concerns and an offer to reinstall the sign in a new temporary location were outlined in letters from the municipality to Tsawout hereditary Chief Eric Pelkey in early September and on Oct. 16 — the day before the sign was removed.

Leonard said he did not hear back from Pelkey.

But he might have been contacting the wrong person.

In a public message sent to Leonard via social media on Saturday, Taiaiake Alfred said: “You were informed in May and since then that I am the designated contact person for the PKOLS group in relations with Saanich.”

Alfred first heard about the sign’s removal via Facebook.

“I was surprised and confused because we were waiting to hear from the municipality about a meeting to make it permanent,” said Alfred, a spokesman for the Indigenous Nationhood Movement and director of the Indigenous Governance program at the University of Victoria.

He said he hopes to meet with Saanich soon to get the sign re-installed.

“The mayor seemed sincere in his willingness to reinstall the sign,” Alfred said. “Maybe he thought he was going through the politically correct channels, but made it more complicated.”

Leonard said he was given Pelkey’s contact information for the sign and reclamation campaign by the Aboriginal Relations Ministry, but Alfred said the government is not really involved.

“In hindsight, we should have done a media release when we took the sign down,” Leonard said. “I didn’t anticipate the conspiracy theories, but that’s on me.”

The PKOLS sign was carried up Mount Douglas by hundreds of First Nations and supporters on May 22, in a ceremony to mark the reclamation of the traditional name, pronounced p’cawls, which translates as white rock.

The site is where the Saanich people first signed a treaty with Sir James Douglas. The signing was re-enacted with a declaration that original place names would be reinstated throughout the traditional territory.

The Tsawout have made a written request to B.C.’s Geographical Names Office to recognize the traditional name. That process is ongoing.

spetrescu@timescolonist.com