Yellowstone National Park announced on Thursday it will be renaming a peak originally dubbed after a cavalryman who was instrumental in the park’s establishment due to his name being “offensive.”
Mt. Doane was originally named after Gustavus Doane, who was part of Yellowstone’s first official expedition in 1870 and played a crucial role in the park’s formation, a Montana State University News Service article states. However, after a 15-0 vote by the U.S. Board on Geographic (BGN) names, the peak was renamed the First People’s Mountain, the National Park Service announced Thursday.
The BGN is “the federal body responsible for maintaining uniform geographic name usage throughout the federal government.”
The peak, which used to bear Doane’s name, stands at 10,551 feet tall “east of Yellowstone Lake in the southeastern portion of the park,” according to the Park release.
Doane enlisted as a volunteer in the Union Army during the Civil War and was later commissioned in the army and climbed the ranks to become a second lieutenant in the Second U.S. Cavalry.
He was tapped to provide “the military escort for the first official exploration of Yellowstone, the Langford-Washburn expedition of 1870,” according to the MSU News Service.
Kim Scott, author of the 2007 biography on Doane, Yellowstone Denied, told the outlet in 2007 that the cavalryman produced “the first reliable report on Yellowstone” that was provided to Congress and it “gained a lot of attention.”
In its release, Yellowstone stated that research indicated in 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,” the release said, adding that he “bragged” of the attack in the years that followed.
The decision by the BGN was made on the recommendation of the Rocky Mountain Tribal Council and the Wyoming Board of Geographic names. The National Park Service endorsed the name change as well.
The release also stated that the park “may consider changes to other derogatory or inappropriate names in the future.”
“Doane’s claim to fame was that he provided a key document that led to the establishment of the world’s first national park,” Scott told the MSU News Service. “He’s not a hero, but people who visit the park should know who he is.”
You can follow Ethan Letkeman on Twitter at@EthanLetkeman.
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