Ending the Indulgence of Offensive Geographic Names

Thoroughly discussing this topic can be difficult outside of TPA. In general I'd say that if Native Americans truly revered the geographical feature and are offended by the name applied by those who took their lands, I favor going with the original Native name -- especially if the name is inherently offensive, like "Squaw." Perhaps "Devil's" is also offensive, though I hadn't thought of it that way.

Many years ago I summited the highest point in South Dakota, Harney Peak. Last year I summited the same peak, now named Black Elk. I had no problem whatsoever with the name change.

I think history is very important to understanding where we've been and where we should go. Rewriting history is not necessarily a bad thing, especially because early versions that became widely accepted were often flawed with factual errors, omissions, and bias. Dedicated scholarship with relevant context has improved our understanding of the past while making it more meaningful to our present and future.

Confederate monuments erected in public squares as assertions of White supremacy during the Jim Crow era are truly offensive, in my opinion. I support their removal to museums where they can be displayed with the full context of their history.

First, a disclaimer of sorts. I live in the Bear Lodge area. And maybe I am too "involved" with this issue to see outside it from the perspective of an average "American." But I don't think Native tribes will ever accept or acquiesce to the name "Devils Tower."

I hope not.

Yet considering that counties and towns in my area are named after reputed "Indian fighters," we have a long way to go before the maps display any measure of justice to the peoples our forebears corralled into "reservations." Why did they? Mostly because those darker-skinned people seemed too much of an inconvenience to the marauding façade of civilization overrunning the places they called home.

If any of us as parents had young darker-skinned children in a darker-skinned school, how would we like to see their school named the "Devil's School"? That is as briefly as I can sum up the long explanation I could give for why it matters.

It's not my place to blame everyone around me. But I see my area as a fringe subculture of fringe America. So it's not surprising that people who care will quickly use the excuse that their commercial interest would be harmed by a name change. In general, the others don't care and don't want anyone telling them what something should be called. I think they see it as America's job to preserve their "lifestyle." And they speak of themselves as the true endangered species.

The so-called "history" of American school-systems has been revisionist from the inception of public schools. The curriculum called "history" was designed to instill patriotism and the prevailing cultures' concept of morality. An honest telling of the past was never the purpose of public schools as they were first envisioned. And the fact that the purveyors' of such fiction now call the truth "revisionist history" is merely one of their feats of hypocrisy.

Travis,

About 6 years ago I really tried to find any kind of truly organized opposition to continuing with the name "Devils Tower" but could not; you've inspired me to look again. Back then I reached out to tribal leaders to no avail. If anyone here knows of any organized efforts to change the name, however small, please let me know because I believe in honoring the "original" name if even just translated into English. All I could really find was the organized and vocal local merchant opposition to any name change, and as I remember they raised significant sums of money. This is the reason my speculation went the route it did and I of course could be be well off the mark. I "think" the biggest reason for local opposition to the name change is rotted in the tourist economy and the type of people local businesses want to attract. From a purely financial based perspective I think the name change would actually bring in more people and money so I'm thinking this may be far less about the money than the prospect of different kinds of visitors upsetting entrenched "tradition."

Swift Dream,

Years ago I remember some folks wanting to change the name to Bear Lodge, not Mato Tipila. Whatever "disagreement" we might have I personally think either name would be great. Given the explanation for Bear Lodge I'm interested in finding out why as far as I've been able to tell there is no CURRENT vocal and frequent demand to honor the translated Lakota name we've seen some tribal people assert. I am not Native American but learned a very little bit about the socioeconomic issues at Pine Ridge and so many other reservations. My Aunt was Mother Superior of the order of nuns that ran schools on the Reservation and my sister spent a summer there right about 50 years ago. I am just surprised no name change effort has been galvanized given the enthusiasm for name changes we see in so many other places. So any further insight you might have from your time there is most welcome.

While I was typing and organizing links, I guess you found your own, but I'll go ahead and post what I had written:

absarokanaut , I wish more people in Wyoming had at least a hint of your attitude, but as the last link below illustrates, the powers that be in Wyoming have managed to stymie any progress toward a name change.

The name "Bear Lodge" was what early maps of this area showed. That was the accepted name before army officers such as George Custer and Richard Dodge brought their rather inept translators to explore the area and its rumors of gold. You may recall how such mis-translations occasionally caused attempted or actual massacres of Native Americans in the army's attempt to tame the West for gold seekers, or, as the case may be, tame the gold seekers themselves.

Somehow those inept translators did not restrain the naming of Custer county in various states or Dodge City in Kansas. But their rendition of Native languages into "Bad God's Tower," shortened to "The Devil's Tower," stuck to some, but not all, of newer maps. And that happened despite there being no other sources ascribing the name to Native sources. Even the name "Black Hills" appears to have been a mis-translation by army personnel.

The Reuters link below gives a brief introduction to the Native proposal to return the name to Bear Lodge, which is also the name of the mountains around the Bear Lodge. The links from the NPS below give a brief history of that proposal, how the mistaken name originated, and how Wyoming's elected officials have managed to stonewall any correction of the place name back to Bear Lodge.

From Reuters, 9-22-2015:
Native Americans want name change for Wyoming's Devils Tower
From the National Park Service:
About the Name

“most of Euro descent are not inclined to get up off the couch.”

Just the sort of stereotype that really sets the right tone.

In our state (Victoria) we still have Mt Buggery, oddly near to Mt Speculation.
BTW, sometime renaming does cause some problems..
This is about renaming Mt Niggerhead (also in my state !): 

www.smh.com.au/national/aboriginal-group-outraged-over-naming-of-mountain-20081117-68gq.html

(Underlined emphasis is mine because that is the question I'm trying to address.)

I think you are expecting too much here if constant agitation from the Lakota people for this name change is what you need. There are too many other priorities. The Lakota people are among the most impoverished citizens of the country. Tribal leaders made their position clear a few years ago, and I think that is current enough to take them seriously even today.

Even the name change for Mount Doane was largely due to Lakota efforts, together with the Blackfeet tribe. That name change was not the result of constant reminders from either tribe. Those two tribes made their positions clear and there is simply no reason to suppose those positions would have changed years later if the name change had been further delayed.

There are close to 6 million people in the US who identify as Native American. Registered tribal membership is somewhat less.

Those Natives, as a whole or by tribe, have no representative in congress. Thus they have no voice of their own in our Government. Whether the name change proposed is in South Dakota or Wyoming, the Native voice is compromised by an overwhelming non-Native majority.

To change a name, legislative or executive action on the Federal level is required. Many name changes are done through an executive department. That succeeded in securing such name changes as Denali, Black Elk Peak, and Mount Doane.

But as I understand this issue, a congressman can block executive action by simply proposing a law codifying the name "Devils Tower." Until such proposed codification is voted up or down in congress, the executive branch cannot effectively change the name. (I linked this earlier.)

The Lakota reservations are located in South Dakota. “Devils Tower” is located in Wyoming. South Dakota has over five times as many Natives as Wyoming does, yet even South Dakota officials would not support a name change for Harney Peak to Black Elk Peak.


I believe the Lakota people have as a whole made their position clear a few years ago. Considering the rather hopeless nature of pursuing the issue with successive agitations for change, there are other issues with higher priority until they find a congress willing to listen to them.

Meanwhile, unfriendly forces are demanding permission to run a potentially leaking oil pipeline under the Oahe Reservoir despite Lakota opposition. An environmental catastrophe is a real possibility. Non-Native communities haven’t even supported the pipeline, yet the Lakota seem compelled to mount lawsuits, protests, and maybe even civil disobedience in North Dakota to get their concerns heard in their own state.

Where is there spare time and extra funding to organize and re-organize against a name change in another state when there are even more issues demanding Lakota priorities?

News media recently gave wide coverage to a blond-haired young lady named Gabby Petito — despite the fact that thousands of missing or murdered Native American women and children get little to no mention. We can't expect the Lakota people to abandon their concern for their own people in order to focus on one more mostly futile effort, so far, for a name change.

To go a step further, there are other name changes and trampling of Lakota sites to be concerned with. Every year the Sturgis bike rally draws hundreds of thousands of Harley enthusiasts to the area near Bear Butte in South Dakota. Several tribes have objected to the trampling, but who is going to listen? The “Indigenous Nations of America” don’t even have a voice in congress.

I hope we would all take a little more time to understand the frustration Natives feel when trying to get some consideration for their efforts to sustain their culture, something they were promised over and over by treaties from the very government they must go to now for consideration.