Last updated on 2015-09-29
The Pennington County Democratic Party is taking a stand for indigenous rights over colonialism. In a resolution passed at their Tuesday meeting, the Pennington County Democrats “encourage[] the U.S. Board of Geographic Names to approve the formal request of Lakota elder Basil Brave Heart to change the name of Harney Peak to Black Elk Peak.” They invite University of Iowa doctoral candidate Eric Zimmer to make the historical case for removing Harney from the peak:
Zimmer notes that Harney “likely never set foot on the mountain. Harney’s actions before and during his time in the Black Hills, moreover, were deplorable under any standard of human decency. While living in St. Louis in 1834, Harney murdered a slave child named Hannah. He was well known for his short temper, and historians have surmised that the girl’s only transgression may have been as minor as misplacing the soldier’s keys. Even in the antebellum South, the attack sparked a public outrage and Harney was indicted for murder. He was ultimately acquitted because, in the repulsive logic of their time, he was a decorated white soldier and she a forgettable slave girl.”
“Harney,” Zimmer continues, then “resumed his military career. Over the years, Harney fought against American Indians in Florida and Illinois, and later against Mexican forces during the US–Mexico War. But it was his exploits at Ash Hollow along Nebraska’s Blue Water Creek that earned Harney the nicknames ‘Mad Bear’ and ‘Woman Killer’ by regional Lakotas.
Following the 1854 Grattan incident, the Army sent Harney to arrest the Lakotas. On the morning of September 2, 1855, Harney’s forces found the Natives camped along Blue Water Creek. Tribal leaders again attempted peace, but Harney ordered an attack that killed eighty-six Lakotas, more than forty of whom were women and children. Aided by two Howitzer machine guns, the soldiers launched their assault then pursued on horseback” [South Dakota Democratic Party, press release, 2015.09.23]
Colonialist Pat Powers can’t be bothered to add any commentary to the Republican press releases on which he makes his blog livelihood (and I use the term lively very lightly). But he lifts a finger at this announcement, portraying it as an endorsement of the name change by the entire state party and a signal that “liberal” SDDP “apparatchiks” will endorse returning the Black Hills to Native Americans.
Typical Powers, who can’t argue the merits of the issue at hand and instead drags readers back to the recycled positions he’d prefer to discuss. See also his persistent-to-tiresomeness branding of Paula Hawks as a supporter of a state income tax (which Rick Knobe now advocates and which would provide a more sound long-term basis for our general fund and teacher pay), even though the federal office for which she is running has little bearing on that state issue.
Powers does reasonably point out that the renaming question before the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (which is taking public comment on the Harney/Black Elk question through the end of this month) is different from the question of restoring the indigenous name for Denali in Alaska, which President Obama properly settled for a laggardly Congress last month. Official and popular opinion in Alaska had been solidly behind that name change for four decades. Here in South Dakota, opinion is divided, with many South Dakotans, including state officials, grasping for strange excuses to obscure their disrespect for the folks who greeted us when we got here.
The fact that their position may provoke disagreement among their neighbors only emphasizes the Pennington County Democrats’ willingness to tackle difficult issues. We should commend the Pennington County Democrats (as well as Republican allies—hey! John Tsitrian doesn’t look like a liberal apparatchik!) for rising above ugly tradition and advocating a little bit of historical justice.
Update 2015.09.29 16:20 CDT: Oh ho! The state party does endorse the name change! Meeting in Rapid City Saturday, the SDDP Central Committee took the Penn Dems’ advice to heart and joined them in issuing a statement to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names in support of changing the name of our highest mountain from Harney Peak to Black Elk Peak.
(Whoa! I slipped and hit the “Close Comments” button. Sorry to shut y’all out—I invite more conversation on this topic! And thanks to Larry Kurtz for pointing out my malfunction.)
there isn’t much more to add except to condemn DWC for allowing the racist hate speech over there.
Curious also that Fleming has largely escaped rebuttal over there while PP lets the establishment GOPers be brutalized by one especially vocal white supremacist.
Mr. Fleming is a pretty swell fellow who commands dignity and respect.
Fleming is anything but pretty.
Depends on who he’s sitting next to. At my usual breakfast table, Bill is a damn attractive fellow, and I mean that in a manly sort of way.
you got me there.
what’s your source for Hinhan Kaga not being “the slab of rock?”
Well people, I’m grateful the Pennington county democrats stepped up. Smart and hopefully will make a difference. The telling line in Coreys article is “including State officials, grasping for strange excuses” OMG next will be Custer, Custer State Park…. the paranoia is palatable.
Harney murdered an innocent slave and shot women and children in a cave. Oh, but he got the natives back on the reservation and apparently that’s what matters in Pierre.
Maybe we should name it “Board of Regents mountain” n Joop can store his Egyptian effigies there. I bet “State officals” would back that one.
PEACE
love it spike.
larry, its a batholith, at the top anyway. some kids apparently built kind of a nice fort at the top, though, too. kinda like telescopes on top of mauna kea. locals call them pimples on their sacred Pele’. never ends does it? :)
I think it should be named what Black Elk himself would have called it. He might prefer that. If it’s hard to pronounce, let that be a little educational challenge for us.
C- u may be right-do not confuse at this late hour, the issue as republican naysayers have. the Brave Heart grass roots proposal is BLACK ELK PEAK. its simple. its an animal, its a Holy Man, its anything but Harney.
the federal board is VERY VERY competent at this stuff. we will get the name right.
support it now. bgnexec@usgs.gov.
Well done, PennDems. Apparatchiks, Mr. Powers? C’mon, man. (As an aside, Powers won’t post my responses to his blogs but I still send them ’cause I know he and his teenager helpers read them when he’s in his pajamas all day. Kinda like his “personal guru”, now. lol ? We don’t get to choose who we advise, ‘ya know Pat.)
Anyone know why PP would openly announce that he’s wiped his server(s) again?
good one, Kurtz
The state Dems support the name change! See their Monday press release reporting a vote of the Central Committee to join the Penn Dems in writing to the USBGN in support of renaming the mountain Black Elk Peak. I have added an update above to the original post.
I support the new name “Slab of Rock”
hahahaha. see my glee for your sodium induced, liquid plastic cheesy fall into gravy? tbs, i have fancied a cherry malt and chili dog