The decision is drawing strong reaction from Governor Dennis Daugaard. John Thune, who called the name change a “unilateral decision” that ignored the will of state officials who had listened to public comment and had earlier recommended the name remain Harney Peak.
Advertisement
“However, the BGN also recognized the wishes of native peoples and many non-native South Dakotans that a new geographic name should be given to this feature that is regarded as a sacred site by several Tribes”, the board says in a statement.
“I suspect very few people know the history of either Harney or Black Elk”, Daugaard said in a statement.
“The profoundness is that we corrected a wrong with a right decision to change the energy from someone who caused harm to a name that epitomizes a good human being”, Brave Heart said.
A federal board’s Thursday decision to rename Harney Peak to Black Elk Peak surprised South Dakota’s governor, but vindicated activists who unsuccessfully argued to state officials a year ago that the peak shouldn’t bear the name of a man whose soldiers killed American Indian woman and children.
Harney Peak Fire Lookout Tower was staffed until the 1960s to watch for wildfires in the Black Hills.
Brave Heart said he hopes the change will be embraced. “We provided the effort, but it was really up to God”, Brave Heart said.
“Who told him that it wasn’t going to be addressed until next year?”
“I’m elated”, Brave Heart said.
“[The decision] vindicate [s] activists who unsuccessfully argued to state officials a year ago that the peak shouldn’t bear the name of a man whose soldiers killed Native Americans”.
Basil Brave Heart first made the request to change the name as a tribute to “a Native American icon” in 2014; state officials declined to recommend a new designation to the federal board a year ago. Besides Harney Peak Thursday, the board considered 12 other requested name changes or requests to name unnamed places, Yost said.
The new name is now considered official for use in federal maps and publications.
Reached at his home north of Manderson, Alex White Plume expressed satisfaction that it was no longer named after the Army General. And we had a ceremony some time back in the He Sapa to cry the thunders back. Many of them preferred Hinhan Kaga, the traditional Lakota name for the mountain.
Advertisement
“I don’t want to see a peak that’s named after someone that violated women and children”, Brave Heart said in 2015. The peak lies in the Black Elk Wilderness of Black Hills National Forest, in Pennington County. Black Elk or Nicholas Black Elk (1863-1950) was a revered Oglala Lakota (Sioux) holy man.
