The U.S. Board of Geographic Names (BGN) will take a final vote on renaming Colorado's Mount Evans on Friday.
The Mestaa'ėhehe Coalition announced on Friday morning that the U.S. BGN will meet on Sept. 15 from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. MT during the Council of Geographic Names Authorities conference to vote on renaming the Colorado mountain, which stands at 14,264 feet south of Georgetown and west of Evergreen, and is a prominent peak along the Front Range.
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According to the U.S. BGN's agenda, the following names are still being considered:
- Mount Blue Sky (The Arapaho were known as the Blue Sky People and the Cheyenne have a ceremony each year called Blue Sky)
- Mount Cheyenne-Arapaho (from Northern Cheyenne Tribe)
- Mount Evans (from private party; to be re-designated after a different Evans family member, Anne Evans)
- Mount Rosalie (from private party)
- Mount Sisty (after Wilson Edward Sisty, who founded Colorado Department of Wildlife and Fish)
- Mount Soule (from private party)
The coalition said the Department of Interior and Tribal Nations "completed the consultation process regarding the renaming of Mount Evans."
Currently, the mountain is named after former territorial Gov. John Evans (1862-1865), who authorized the murder of Native Americans in Colorado and was responsible for the Sand Creek Massacre in 1864, which ended with hundreds of Cheyenne and Arapaho men, women, and children killed, according to the Sand Creek Massacre Foundation.
The Clear Creek County Board of County Commissioners voted to rename Mount Evans in March 2022 to honor the Indigenous people of Colorado. The Colorado Geographic Naming Advisory Board (CGNAB) then began meeting to discuss the name change.
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In November 2022, the CGNAB voted unanimously to recommend the renaming of Mount Evans to Mount Blue Sky. Several months later, in March, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis formally recommended the same name change, pushing the final decision to the U.S. BGN.
The renaming process was put on pause to discuss the Northern Cheyenne Tribes' concerns with naming the peak Mountain Blue Sky. Northern Cheyenne tribal administrator William Walksalong told The Denver Post in March that assigning the words “Blue Sky” to Mount Evans would be “sacrilegious,” as the words "Blue Sky" are used in Northern Cheyenne ceremony. He told The Denver Post that transferring the words to serve as the name of a mountain would betray secrets. That tribe has advocated for the name Mount Cheyenne-Arapaho.
Exact details were not immediately available Friday, but the Mestaa'ėhehe Coalition confirmed discussions with Tribal Nations about renaming Mount Evans are complete.
