News
Mountain Within Yellowstone National Park Undergoes Name Change
Yellowstone National Park announced that Mount Doane is now named First Peoples Mountain.
The announcement follows a 15-0 vote affirming the change by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (BGN), the federal body responsible for maintaining uniform geographic name usage throughout the federal government.
First Peoples Mountain is a 10,551-foot peak within Yellowstone National Park east of Yellowstone Lake in the southeastern portion of the park.
The peak was previously named after Gustavus Doane, a key member of the Washburn-Langford-Doane expedition in 1870, prior to Yellowstone becoming America’s first national park.
Research has shown that earlier that same year (1870), Doane led an attack, in response to the alleged murder of a white fur trader, on a band of Piegan Blackfeet.
During what is now known as the Marias Massacre, at least 173 American Indians were killed, including many women, elderly Tribal members and children suffering from smallpox.
Doane wrote fondly about this attack and bragged about it for the rest of his life.
Based on recommendations from the Rocky Mountain Tribal Council, subsequent votes within the Wyoming Board of Geographic names, and with support of the National Park Service, the name was forwarded to the BGN for a vote in June 2022.
The name change will be reflected in The Domestic Names Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) in the coming days.
Yellowstone conducted outreach to all 27 associated Tribes over the past several months and received no opposition to the change nor concerns.
Yellowstone may consider changes to other derogatory or inappropriate names in the future.
Jim Brock
June 10, 2022 at 6:56 am
How long are we going to tolerate this ridiculous behavior? I’ve watched this go on for years now. Every dictatorship has this same pattern. Remove and replace history. Nobody escapes the reality that people suck and aren’t what future generations believe them to be; no matter whom they were. At what point do we just delete them and replace them with different people that aren’t who they really are? It’s already happening. Guess what? Your parents were probably scum bags too. Are you going to erase them from any legacy, too?
edward capp
June 10, 2022 at 8:00 am
The name wasn’t “derogatory or inappropriate”. The name came from the surname of a person. Stop trying to change the past! What, are we going to try the change the name of the Teton Mountains now?
The past was the past. History is History. As much as we would like, it cannot be changed. Why not put effort and resources into something we CAN change going forward. What an unnecessary waste of time and money.