Yellowstone Peak Renamed, Old Name Supposedly Offensive

The National Park Service recently announced that Yellowstone National Park’s Mount Doane would become First Peoples Mountain.

According to the agency, Thursday’s change was made in order to remove an offensive name from America’s first national parks.

The U.S. Board on Geographic Names unanimously voted 15-0 in favor of the decision.

The Wyoming mountain is located at 10,551 feet east Yellowstone Lake.

Gustavus Doane was the original name of the mountain.

Doane was born in Illinois in 1840. He grew up in California, attended the University of the Pacific Santa Clara and enlisted in the California Hundred, a federal volunteer unit that was absorbed into the Second Massachusetts Volunteer Cavalry.

He was promoted to sergeant in 1864 and resigned to accept a rank as lieutenant with Mississippi Marine Brigade’s first regiment, according to Montana State University.

Doane was elected mayor of Yazoo City Mississippi after the Civil War in 1867.

He applied for a commission in the army a year later and was made second lieutenant in Second U.S. Cavalry.

Doane served the regiment for 24 years and was promoted to captain in 1884.

Doane was also the leader of the Langford-Washburn expedition in 1870, which was the first official exploration of Yellowstone National Park.

Doane tried unsuccessfully to win the Yellowstone National Park superintendency and gain widespread acceptance by the army for his invention, Doane Centennial Tent.

According to the National Park Service, Doane was credited with leading an attack on a group of Piegan Blackfeet following the murder of a White fur merchant in 1870.

Based on the Rocky Mountain Tribal Council’s recommendations, the name was sent to the Board on Geographic Names.

Yellowstone National Park reached out over the past several months to all 27 Tribes and received no objections or concerns about the change.

In the coming days, The Domestic Names Geographic Names Information System will reflect the name change.