52 Nebraskaland • December 2022
While on a hunting trip in the Pine Ridge in northwestern
Nebraska in 2010, I photographed a picturesque butte in
northwestern Sheridan County. When I got back to the
office, I looked, as I often do, at the U.S. Geological Survey
topographical maps to see if it was named. I couldn't believe
that, in the 21st century, a feature could still carry a name
that was both sexist and racist.
It no longer does. In September, the U.S. Department of
Interior announced the Board on Geographic Names had
approved the list of replacement names for federal use for
that feature, seven more in Nebraska and more than 650
across the country that included the term that historically
has been an offensive ethnic, sexist slur typically directed
toward Native American women. On USGS maps, the butte
in Sheridan County is now called Evening Star Butte.
Judi gaiashkibos, executive director of the Nebraska
Commission on Indian Affairs and a member of the Ponca
Tribe, applauded the move.
"Bravo! Finally," she said.
"I have been called that word in my life, and it was never
said in a positive tone," she said. "It was derogatory. As a
woman, as a native woman, and the mother of two daughters
and two granddaughters, I definitely find that it is really
disrespectful, and I absolutely think that it is inappropriate."
Society has evolved, gaiashkibos said, and that is good.
And with what is happening in the United States in recent
years, it's even more timely.
Other features containing the term include streams,
a mound, a reservoir, and a bend on the Missouri River
reservoirs in Dawes, McPherson, Richardson and Sioux
counties. There had been more. In 2000, then Gov. Mike
Johanns asked counties with features containing the term to
rename them. Gage, Holt, Knox, Saline and Sarpy counties
complied.
Nationally, several states have passed bills requiring the
term be removed from the names of more than 1,000 creeks,
summits, canyons and other features. But similar bills in
other states have failed, as did previous efforts by Native
Americans to convince the Board of Geographic Names to
remove the term. The board had, however, in the past 20
years considered 261 proposals to change the names of
individual features.
September's move by the Board follows months of work
by the Derogatory Geographic Names Task Force, which
included representatives from numerous government
agencies. That effort produced a list of proposed changes,
which was reviewed by nearly 70 tribal governments. The
new names are immediately effective for federal use.
A complete list of names and a map can be found at
USGS.gov.
REPLACING THE OFFENSIVE
By Eric Fowler
Evening Star Butte in Sheridan County. ERIC FOWLER, NEBRASKALAND
MIXED BAG
