YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. A government panel has given the Yellowstone National Park mountain its new name. It was named after a U.S. Army soldier who led a massacre against Native Americans.
After Thursday's unanimous vote of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (the National Park Service), Mount Doane will be renamed First Peoples Mountain.
The peak at 10,551 feet in southeastern Yellowstone, Wyoming was named after Lt. Gustavus Daoane, who led an attack against a band in northern Montana of Piegan Blackfeets in 1870.
Doane would go on for his entire life raving about the Marias Massacre. Yellowstone officials stated in a statement that the attack was in response to the killing of a white fur merchant.
Doane was not only a leader in the massacre but also a key member on a Yellowstone expedition that year. In 1872, Yellowstone was declared the first national park in the world.
According to the statement, Yellowstone officials met with 27 tribes about the name change.
"This name change has been long overdue. "We all agreed that 'First Peoples Mountain' was the appropriate name to honor those who were victims of inhumane genocide and also to remind people of the 10,000-year-plus relationship tribal peoples have with this sacred place now known as Yellowstone," Piikani Nation Chief Stan Grier stated in a Wednesday statement.
