Mount Evans, the Colorado fourteener named after the state’s disgraced territorial governor, now has a new name: Mount Blue Sky.
The U.S. Board on Geographic Names voted 15-1 on Friday afternoon to accept the proposal for the new name, which was among six submitted since the effort began in 2018 to rename one of the Front Range’s best-known peaks. The Clear Creek County mountain is visible from across metro Denver, rising behind the downtown skyline when viewed from the east.
“We’re taking the name of one that we looked at and felt sorrow — and (recalled) atrocities — to something happy,” said Fred Mosqueda, the Arapaho language and culture program coordinator of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, in an interview after the vote.
The mountain had been named for Colorado territorial Gov. John Evans. He was forced to resign following the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864, when U.S. soldiers attacked about 750 Cheyenne and Arapaho people in southeastern Colorado territory, even after they had tried to broker peace. About 230 were killed, more than half of them women and children.
The new name carries tribal meaning: The Arapaho people are known as the “Blue Sky People,” and the Cheyenne people “have an annual ceremony marking the renewal of life called ‘Blue Sky,’ ” according to the petition submitted by the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes and the Wilderness Society, a nonprofit conservation organization.
The yearslong name-change process culminated in Friday’s lopsided vote for Mount Blue Sky, with three members of the geographic naming board abstaining.
Mosqueda said Friday that the tribes that were driven out of Colorado would see the mountain with Evans’ name as a commemoration of a devastating time in their history.
Now, the new name is more welcoming — one that he hopes all people will see as a celebration of life.
The peak sits along the boundary of the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests and the Pike and San Isabel National Forests, and its summit is the 14th highest in the state. The name change took effect immediately.
Colorado’s U.S. senators, John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet, praised the decision, with Bennet calling the renaming process thoughtful.
“As we work to address the wrongs done to the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, and to Native people across the country,” Bennet said, “this is a strong first step.”
Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes Governor Reggie Wassana said the change brings “honor to a monumental and majestic mountain.”
“It is time to heal and cleanse the horrific acts of the past that will work through the future and be corrected,” Wassana said in a statement to The Denver Post. “Long before settlement and gold mining, there was a Native American name for the mountain. Now, the mountain is named Mount Blue Sky, with support from many Native American Tribes and allies.”
The federal naming board selected Mount Blue Sky after it was recommended by Colorado’s Geographic Naming Advisory Board and supported by Gov. Jared Polis, the Clear Creek County Board of Commissioners and about 75 other organizations.
Besides the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, the new name was backed by the Northern Arapaho Tribe, the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe.
The Northern Cheyenne Tribe in Montana opposed the change, saying the name “Mount Blue Sky” could be considered sacrilegious because a Northern Cheyenne ceremony uses the “blue sky” words and concept. The federal board’s vote was delayed in March so the tribes could consult with one another about the disagreement, but they did not reach a consensus. An attempt to reach a representative from the Northern Cheyenne Tribe prior to Friday’s vote was unsuccessful.
Andy Flora, a Department of Commerce official who is a member of the naming board’s Domestic Names Committee, said during Friday’s meeting that he had some concerns about using the name of a sacred ceremony.
“I don’t think that we could ever possibly reach a consensus that would satisfy” all stakeholders, he said. “But I do hope that whatever name we pick does start the healing process.”
Other names considered for the peak included Mount Rosalie, Mount Soule, Mount Sisty and Mount Cheyenne Arapaho. A final option would have kept the name as Mount Evans but instead would have honored John Evans’ daughter, Anne Evans, a civic and cultural arts leader in Denver.
Still unresolved Friday was the fate of the Mount Evans Wilderness. The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes called on Congress to adopt the same new name for the 74,401-acre expanse surrounding the mountain.
“Now, it’s time to finish the job by changing the name of the Mount Evans Wilderness, which no longer makes sense,” agreed Jim Ramey, the Colorado state director for The Wilderness Society, in a statement that thanked the tribes for leading the renaming effort. “Congress should act swiftly to change the name of the wilderness area so that we can all begin to learn, heal and grow together.”
Colorado’s Geographic Naming Advisory Board was formed in July 2020 amid a renewed public interest in removing symbols of racism, and it has considered a series of name changes for geographic features around the state.
In a news release from the U.S. Department of the Interior on Friday, Michael Brain, the principal deputy assistant secretary for water and science, said the name change process represented the federal government’s commitment to the tribes and to making sure all voices were heard.
“Names matter,” he said. “How we identify our public lands is an important opportunity to be inclusive and welcoming, and to make a lasting impact for future generations.”
Updated Sept. 19, 2023, at 3:55 p.m. Due to incorrect information from a source, an earlier version of this story incorrectly attributed comments made during a meeting of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. The story has been changed to indicate that Andy Flora, a member of the board’s Domestic Names Committee, said he had concerns about renaming Mount Evans using a term also used for a sacred ceremony but hoped the board’s choice would help start the healing process.
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