The U.S. Board of Geographic Names decided on Thursday to rename the highest peak in South Dakota, Harney Peak in the Black Hills National Forest, to Black Elk Peak.
Daugaard: Federal board renames Harney Peak. https://t.co/2NlpsYolSA pic.twitter.com/aYjfejJHpk
— Brian Allen (@BriAlNews) August 11, 2016
Black Elk was a Lakota spiritual leader who died in 1950. A book written about his life, Black Elk Speaks, has been translated into multiple languages, and he was a second cousin of Crazy Horse. "He's definitely a very powerful visionary that is at least deserving of the peak's name," Wayne Frederick, a representative of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe tribal council, told The Associated Press. "It's extremely uplifting." Army Gen. William S. Harney's troops massacred Native American women and children during a battle in 1855, historical records say. The name change was suggested by Basil Brave Heart, a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, who said in 2015 he didn't want to see a peak "named after someone that violated women and children. Our people had to live under that icon, that man who did that to our people."
The new name will be used by the federal government on maps and other products. The board's executive secretary told AP they felt the "name was derogatory or offensive, being that it was on a holy site of the Native Americans." The governor of South Dakota, Dennis Daugaard (R) feels differently, calling the name change an "unnecessary expense and confusion. I suspect very few people know the history of either Harney or Black Elk," while Sen. John Thune (R) says it "defies logic."