Racist and offensive names don’t belong anywhere. But especially when those offensive names are attached to public lands, changing them is the right thing to do.
Right now in Colorado, the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes are leading the effort to rename Mt. Evans as Mt. Blue Sky, a name that honors the cultures and traditions of both tribes. We need your help to make that happen.
John Evans, Colorado’s second territorial governor, facilitated and praised the Sand Creek massacre, in which hundreds of Cheyenne and Arapaho men, women and children were brutally slaughtered. Today, more than a century and a half after he was forced to resign in disgrace, this Colorado mountain still bears Evans’ name—and it is still a source of pain for some Indigenous people. As Morning Star Jones, a direct descendant of Sand Creek Massacre survivors, has put it, “You have to close your eyes and imagine a person being honored who tried to annihilate your whole family.”
Renaming it Mt. Blue Sky would honor the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes: The Arapaho were known as the Blue Sky People and the Cheyenne have an annual ceremony of renewal of life called Blue Sky. This change will tell a more honest and inclusive story about Colorado’s past, and it’s simply the right thing to do.
Sincerely,
