Meetings begin in Colorado on proposal to change to the name of Mount Evans

Colorado's Geographic Naming Advisory Board will start meetings Tuesday on the proposal to change the name of Mount Evans. It follows a weekend in which Native Americans walked from the site of the Sand Creek Massacre to Mount Evans calling for change. Most of the group favors the name "Mount Blue Sky" suggested by the Cheyenne-Arapaho tribe.

"The Arapahoe people were called the Blue Sky People because they were under this amazing sky that we get to be under now so we have to do something to acknowledge and honor that legacy," said Connor Ryan, a Hunkpapa Lakota tribe member who ran from Echo Lake to the top of Mount Evans as part of the Ancestral Healing Walk.

Ryan said Evans was a mountain he bad previously stayed away from.

"I've run a lot of mountains in Colorado, I've skied a lot of mountains in Colorado, but I've never gone to Mount Evans because of its name."

There is history to the name Mount Blue Sky, said Ryan.

"The name Evans has been there for just a glimpse of the history of that mountain whereas it's been standing underneath that Blue Sky for millions of years probably."

The organizer of the walk, Paul Soderman has been through a re-naming before. Harney Peak, the tallest in the Black Hills of South Dakota was named for an ancestor, General William Selby Harney.

"He committed a massacre in 1855. Killed 86 Lakota people and mostly women and children, sanitized his report and then he was the first signer of the 1868 Fort Laramie treaty."

He talked with native people and came to the view that he wanted a change too.

"My feeling was I wanted the Harney name off of that mountain myself. And my family supported that as well." In 2016 it was changed to Black Elk Peak.

The move to change the name of Evans has been talked about for a while. The Denver American Indian Commission wrote in support of changing the name four years ago, writing "It's time to discontinue using Evans' name because we do not honor mass killing of human life for any reason. Colorado's interest in promoting inclusivity is stronger than any prior interest in honoring a man who is known for politically targeting Tribes (Utes, Cheyenne, Arapaho and Lakota) with messages of hate and fear, of which directly resulted in a massacre of over 160 people, including mostly women and children."

Evans' role in the Sand Creek Massacre eventually led to his removal as territorial governor. But the name has stood. The mountain dominates the Front Range from the metro area.

"I think right now it casts a bit of dark shadow over the city of Denver," said Ryan. "All of these places, even where we're sitting, had indigenous names. For thousands of years. And those names, got cancelled, did they not?" asked Soderman. "So maybe it's time to even that out a little bit."

Ryan says he found inspiration seeing a child along with the demonstration on Sunday by Echo Lake.

"It gives me a lot of hope to think that little baby boy could grow up and never know what Mount Evans is or was, and yet gets to spend time on top of that particular mountain whenever he chooses. That gives me a lot of hope."

There are six possibilities for the board to consider. They are; Mount Blue Sky, Mount Cheyenne-Arapaho, Mount Rosalie, Mount Sisty, and Mount Soule and Mount Evans (but named for the daughter of John Evans.)

The board will have several meetings on the issue before potentially recommending a change to the governor. If Gov. Jared Polis signs off, it would go to the US Geological Survey's U.S. Board on Geographic Names. That is where naming takes place.