Peak political correctness?

Either I have slept through the winter and this is April 1, or we have reached the apotheosis of political correctness.  Per this story in the Toronto Star, the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) is dropping the word "chief" from titles like Chief Financial Officer, out of respect for indigenous peoples.

To say that the rationale presented in the article is confusing would be putting it mildly. At one point an actual indigenous person at the TDSB (more about him later) says "The word has a lot of meaning to our people", evidently in a positive sense.  Later an academic who may or may not also be indigenous says the term "carries the weight of being forced to adopt an alien form of governance", which doesn't sound positive at all.

"Chief" is an ancient English word that the indigenous peoples had never used and didn't want, but it was forced on them by the settlers.  Now, rather than coming up with a different word that the indigenous people themselves can agree on (difficult, as there are so many indigenous languages), the English school board in Toronto is proposing to stop using this perfectly serviceable word to describe positions that have very little to do with indigenous people. Remarkably, it seems this process of re-titling has already taken several years, and there is still no indication of what the replacement term might be.     

Years ago I was involved in a major initiative with indigenous peoples and met a whole lot of chiefs, all of whom wore the title proudly.  (They told me that the term "Indian", though no longer much used, was not seen as insulting because until the white man showed up, the indigenous people did not really have a collective term for themselves).  The TDSB may be tying itself in knots for no-one's real benefit: as the TDSB's indigenous arts creator, Dr Duke Redbird, tells the Star, "we do not have a problem with their use of the word for what they want to describe in their own communities".

Oh, and about your own given name, Dr Redbird: Duke??  Cultural appropriation or what?*  A duke is a personage of great importance in many white cultures, so how about.....

* I'm joking.  Just wish the TDSB was joking too.