The National Park Service announced last week that Dawn Mountain in Yellowstone National Park will be renamed First Peoples Mountain.
The agency said Thursday that the change was taken to remove an “insulting name” from America’s first national park.
The US Geographical Names Council voted unanimously, 15-0, reaffirming the decision.
Mount Wyoming is located 10,551 feet east of Yellowstone Lake.
The mountain was previously named after the explorer Gustav Doan.
Born in Illinois in 1840, Dawn grew up in California and attended the Pacific University of Santa Clara before enrolling in the California Hundred, a federal volunteer unit absorbed by the Massachusetts Second Volunteer Cavalry.
After becoming a sergeant until 1864, he resigned to accept a commission as a lieutenant in the First Regiment, a Mississippi Marine brigade, according to Montana State University.
After the Civil War, Dawn was appointed mayor of Yazu City Mississippi in 1867.
A year later, he applied to the Army Commission and was appointed second lieutenant in the Second American Cavalry.
For the next 24 years, Dawn served in a regiment, reaching the rank of captain in 1884.
During his post-war career, he was stationed at border posts in Montana, California and Arizona.
He fought in the Sioux War of 1876, the Nez Pierce War of 1877, and the Apache Campaign of 1886.
Dawn also led the first official survey of present-day Yellowstone National Park, the Langford-Washburn Expedition of 1870.
Towards the end of his life, Dawn unsuccessfully tried to gain control of Yellowstone National Park and influence the army’s widespread acceptance of his invention, the Dawn Century Tent.
He died on May 5, 1892.
The National Park Service said that in 1870, Dawn led an attack on the Pigan Blackfoot group in response to the alleged murder of a white trader.
“At least 173 American Indians were killed during what is now known as the Marias massacre, including many women, elderly members of the tribe and children suffering from smallpox. Dawn wrote with love about this attack and bragged about it for the rest of his life, “the agency writes.
The name was forwarded to the Board of Geographical Names in June 2022 based on recommendations from the Rocky Mountain Tribal Council.
Yellowstone National Park has approached all 27 connected tribes in recent months and has received no opposition or concerns about the change.
The name change will be reflected in the Geographical Names Information System (GNIS) in the coming days.
The park said it could consider further changes to other “humiliating or inappropriate names in the future”.
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