HELENA, Mont. (NMB) – Yellowstone Public Radio reports that multiple groups are petitioning the federal government to change the names of three geographic features that are named after Confederate Civil War leader Jefferson Davis in order to honor Native Americans and Chinese immigrants who built the state’s mines.
The U.S. Board of Geographic Names is being asked to rename to rename Jeff Davis Peak and Jeff Davis Creek in Beaverhead County to ‘Three Eagles Peak’ and ‘Choos-wee Creek.’ For Jeff Davis Gulch in Lewis and Clark County, the proposal is to change the name to “In-qu-qu-leet Gulch,” a phonetic spelling of the Salish term meaning ‘Place of Lodgepole Pine.’
The petition was filed on behalf of the Montana Racial Equity Project, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, the Montana Human Rights Network, the Forward Montana Foundation, Montana Wilderness Association, the Wilderness Society and the Mai Wah Society, a Butte museum on the history of Asian people in the Rocky Mountains and others.
