Yellowstone National Park, Vaio (AP) – A government council has renamed Yellowstone National Park as a mountain named after a U.S. Army officer who witnessed the massacre of Native Americans.
The National Park Service announced Thursday that Mount Duane will be called the first people on the mountain after a unanimous vote by the United States Council of Geographical Names.
The 10,551-foot (3,200-meter) peak in southeast Yellowstone, Wyoming, is named after Lt. Gustavo Doan, who helped attack the Pigan Blackfit group in northern Montana in 1870.
Doan boasted all his life of the so -called massacre of Maria. The attack in response to the alleged killing of white fur traders killed at least 173 American Indians, including many women, adults and children with smallpox, Yellowstone officials said in a statement.
In addition to being the leader of the massacre, Doan was an important member of the Yellowstone Expedition that same year. Yellowstone became the world’s first national park in 1872.
The statement said Yellowstone officials had consulted with 27 tribes to change the name.
“It’s too late to change the name. We all agree on “Mountain of the First Peoples” as an appropriate name to honor the victims of genocide and also to remind people of the added 10,000-year connection between the indigenous people and this sacred place called now Yellowstone. Peacock Nation leader Stan Greer said in a statement Wednesday.
The traditional territory of the Pecan Nation includes most of Montana, including the site of the Maria massacre and the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Source: Huffpost
