From my mailbox, I have to confess, I did not see this one coming from South Dakota Democrat HQ.
Immediate Release: Tuesday, September 23, 2015
Contact: Suzanne Jones Pranger, (605) 271-5405; [email protected]Pennington County Democrats Call for Renaming of Harney Peak
Rapid City, SD (September 22, 2015)-On September 22, 2015, the Pennington County Democratic Party passed a resolution calling for the renaming of Harney Peak, the highest mountain in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The resolution, entitled “PENNINGTON COUNTY DEMOCRATIC PARTY RESOLUTION OF SUPPORT FOR RENAMING HARNEY PEAK TO ‘BLACK ELK PEAK,’” encourages 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.
The resolution states that public comments received by the U.S. Board of Geographic Names included support of the name change by a descendent of General William S. Harney and a descendent of Little Thunder, a leader of a Lakota village destroyed by Harney in 1855. The resolution further states that the existing name of the peak is highly offensive to Native people.
Historian Eric Zimmer, a doctoral candidate at the University of Iowa and a research fellow at the Center for American Indian Research and Native Studies on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, provides historical background regarding General Harney, after whom the peak is currently named.
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.”
Changing the name of Harney Peak would follow the historic renaming of North America’s highest mountain, “Mt. McKinley,” to its indigenous name, Denali. President Obama announced that change last month.
The Pennington County Democrats will transmit their Resolution to Mr. Lou Yost, Executive Secretary of the US Board on Geographic Names, Domestic Names Committee by the September 30, 2015 public comment deadline. The public can submit comment, as well, to
Mr. Lou Yost, Executive Secretary
US Board on Geographic Names/Domestic Names Committee
523 National Center
Reston, VA 20192-0523
by September 30, 2015 or via email at [email protected].###
After we just got done with one round with ‘the board of changing mountain names,’ or whatever they’re called, Democrats are right back at it with a false sense of political correctness.
Unfortunately for them, they don’t seem to know any history with the renaming of Mount McKinley. They forget that the state of Alaska has been asking for this for 75 years or better, and it was long requested by a majority of the state’s residents.
But in South Dakota, the movement to rename Harney Peak represents a fragment of the population, at best, and they can’t even decide amongst themselves what they want to call it. This movement from the South Dakota Democratic Party to put their muscle (and I use that term very lightly) behind renaming the mountain not only seems strange, it would put them at odds with the majority of the population in the state.
Arguably, there would probably be about the same number of people in South Dakota want to change the mountain name as there are who would want to give the Black Hills to Native Americans.
And given how liberal the South Dakota Democratic Party apparatchiks have become, we shouldn’t be surprised if that’s going to be the next press release we see from their leadership.
The Democrats in South Dakota are now run by complete lunatics. They love Obama, giving our tax money to Planned Parenthood, and renaming anything that might be named about a white guy. I’m done. I’ll never support those idiots.
“The Democrats in South Dakota are now run by complete lunatics.” Your right about that! The wave of defections from that party will see a larger increase by November 2016.
What is a Howizter machine gun? I am familiar with the Gatling gun invented in 1862, but not of one before then.
To Dems, all guns look alike, even imaginary ones.
a gatling gun then.
Pranger is ruining her life. She should get a real job. Oh right, she tried that. It didn’t go so well
Here’s the oddity in this. Until last year, Harney was just the name of a peak that we all hiked up. If you asked what “Harney” meant, people would say “the peak in the Black Hills”. Now, the “offended” folks have went to great lengths to tell people that Harney means something else, telling a story about a person none of us have ever heard of. What inspired them to change the narrative about Harney – just goofy.
This supposed unjust being spewed by a few who somehow feel a sense of victory by forcing the majority to lower their historical knowledge base only highlights and promotes racial tensions between Natives and non-natives. “Because we can” is a horrible reason to rename anything for vindictive purposes.
It’s one thing to change an offensive name to one of clearer vision and beauty but when every wrong ever associated with a namesake bubbles up as decisive proof of racist hate the scam is in the fix.
“who somehow feel a sense of victory”
Agreed.
It’s more than a “feeling” for them–it’s that they BELIEVE WHOLEHEARTEDLY that they’re “making a difference” or “raising awareness”.
They view themselves as white (literally) knights, riding their gelded cis-steads of righteousness to save the day on behalf of all oppressed peoples everywhere , trampling history and reality under foot.
The RACISM inherent in their crusade–that NAs have no agents of their own to speak and act for themselves–is obviously missed as they raise their pikes of justice to slay that evil Harney.
RIDE ON SDDP, ride on!!!!
I am one who is in the middle.
On one hand, I don’t like the rationale being promoted for the solution as it is grounded in a victimization which implies something negative on the people of the South Dakota. Schoenbeck is right- it is just the name for the highest point in our State.
On the other hand, I think there is some great symbolism in having the highest point named after something that all South Dakotans can identify with historically.
Is naming it after Black Elk the best name? I don’t know. Personally, I like it because I think he was a great man who is under-appreciated by most South Dakotans and naming the Peak after him is a great opportunity for informing all of us about this man. At the same time, I admit it is just my personal best choice. Maybe there is another person who the preponderance of the people want it to be named after. Maybe it shouldn’t be named after a person but something else.
But, if it is to be changed, I think it is of such significance it shouldn’t be done by an entity nobody even knows who is on the Commission and are not accountable to the people. This is OUR landmark.
If it is to stay the same, I’m ok with it. It has been its name for over 100 years. Sometimes, history is just history.
actually, if they were going to go for the name daschle peak or kneip knoll or something like that i’d be totally against it. but the name black elk wouldn’t be all bad. i would agree with you i think.
Troy ,
It is my belief that we already use too much symbolism when it comes to trying to improve our relations with our tribes . Too many times in our arrogance we presume we have the answers without including them in our fix . We are not alone in pursuing symbolism , the tribes are also guilty of that . Its about time we worked together to solve the real injustices of a broken reservation system , IHS , abuse , suicide , on and on to really make life better for their members .
” I think there is some great symbolism in having the highest point named after something that all South Dakotans can identify with historically. ”
The is no symbol that we can all identity with–it’s a fool’s errand.
And symbols change, as do their meanings, over time. Are we willing to change symbols as collective voices (however small) raise and fall with fads?
Renaming sports teams’ mascots has done what? Made some “activists” very wealthy?
The point is well made: too many people for too long have been placated by symbols, or offered symbolic crumbs, yet nothing of substance changes.
If the SDDP wants to advocate for REAL change, they should promote private land ownership on SD’s reservations. Talk about a symbol–the reservation “system” is antiquated, dysfunctional, and a sad and very visible symbol of near-complete failure.
Spot on! End the reservation system that has done nothing for the Native Americans but make them dependent on the government and destroy their self-esteem and ambition. Make them part of the UNITED STATES, not a separate entity within the US. I know a teacher at an Indian school, and this person says that most of the students have no ambition to really learn or accomplish much because as soon as they are through school they will go back to the rez and the government will take care of them.
The Left wants to “completely transform” our country, as Obama has said. This is how they do it, inch by inch. We need to fight back people!
Why can’t we see the comments on the leaked Ashley Madison list PP? It’s all going to bust out in the open soon and we want to be “in the know”!
The comments are there. I’m just ceasing people adding to them.
Do “all black hills matter”
or not?
There is a mountain dedicated to Crazy Horse and he didn’t commit any heinous acts, please…George Washington was a slave owner, we better remove his face from the mountain. When will we stop treating the natives like victims and realize they took the land from other people before we did? Our ancestors set a terrible precedent that we are all paying for now.
Rep. Verchio,
I agree with you. Symbolic statements aren’t a substitute for real action. And, I admit I happen to be a person who has a private devotion and veneration of Black Elk. I think if the book was written directly by him and not via an interpreter/ghost writer, he’d be formally recognized with either “Servant of God,” “Venerable,” or maybe even “Blessed” before his name.
” I think if the book was written directly by him”
That would have been impossible, now wouldn’t it?
““Servant of God,” “Venerable,” or maybe even “Blessed” before his name.”
Utter nonsense.
BE was to the end, a Lakota pantheist. Nearing death, he proudly proclaimed he had always believed in the “pipe religion”. A fine man. Good history to be studied, but not a Christian and certainly not a Roman Catholic.
Please, leave the canonization process to the Catholic & the Orthodox churches.
Allow me to temper my comments.
WHAT Black Elk was– spiritually speaking–can be debated. At the end, those who knew him observed his return to the old Ogala Lakota ways.
As in many other areas, many non-NAs (including Catholic spiritualists) have “adopted” BE for their own purposes: assuage white guilt, reconciliation, revisionism, mystic appeal, etc. The sincerely of BE’s conversion to Catholicism/Christianity must be questioned in the context of his accommodating a changing world, and in his later comments about his spirituality.
There is little support for any kind of sainthood process for BE, mainly because of BEs ambiguous adherence to Catholicism as well as a near total absence of any supporting “miracles”.
Among other things, BE can be applauded for weaving many religious strands through his life and work.
Here’s a choice for the peak’s renaming:
Hamer Peak,
after Fannie Lou Hamer.
Her dignified response to the inhumane racial indignities heaped upon her by the likes of LBJ, Walter Mondale, and Hubert Humphrey stand as a beacon of hope for all mankind.
Ms. Hamer’s DIGNITY in the face of these powerful racists reminds us what one righteous person can do. The mountain can be climbed, she reminded us.
HAMER PEAK.
So? It might take another 75 years, but you gotta take the first steps sometime, eh?
lets see with the hatred of some of those crazies over at Dakotans For Pot blog and the SDDP I can see them calling for chiseling off Washington & Jefferson’s faces off Mt. Rushmore next.
Lay off my SD Demcrates that are fitein for my right to smoke my cannibus so I can feel better. I shudnt have to wory bout goin to jail or takin a drug test when I get my snap card filled or welfare.
well was that fun or what?
Way to keep focused on the important issues, Pennington County Dems. Ugh. Pathetic. This is a perfect example of why the party is in shambles.
Per Curiam,
I suggest you not presume to know the motive of people who choose to hold Black Elk in high regard, especially since you don’t know me or many like me.
It is your personal opinion it is nonsense he would ever be recognized by the Church. I have a different opinion if he had written his book vs. it being filtered by an interpreter/biographer. Who is right is the exclusive prerogative of the Church after an investigation which also makes your and my opinion speculative.
That said, Venerable and Servant of God do not require a miracle. And, neither of us know if a miracle has occurred without an investigation, which may or may not have been done.
“I suggest you not presume to know the motive of people who choose to hold Black Elk in high regard, especially since you don’t know me or many like me.”
Good suggestion.
Nor should one create a strawman about presumptions when no presumption was made or intended.
“: for their own purposes: assuage white guilt, reconciliation, revisionism, mystic appeal, etc”
Is it okay to presume you’re in the “etc.” category?
“:It is your personal opinion”
What other kind of opinions are there?
“It is your personal opinion it is nonsense he would ever be recognized by the Church”
Well no, I have no idea if the “Church” will recognize this nonsense. I made no comment on what the Catholic church recognizes in the case of BE. In general, the Church recognizes a lot of nonsense, and a lot of deeply important beliefs.
” And, neither of us know if a miracle has occurred without an investigation,”
Have any miracles been alleged, or attributed to BE?
Assume nothing. You don’t know me. I’m assuaging nothing. I find the book “Black Elk Speaks” spiritually illuminating and edifying and have discerned nothing in conflict with my faith.
Assume nothing? Huh?
Is this more of your hypocrisy that was in full bloom yesterday when your yammered about judging others, the sin of anger, the private nature of internet browsing, …
and then proceeded to call me a “phony”, and demand that I allowed strangers to investigate my internet usage?
Today, you ASSUMED that ““I suggest you not presume to know the motive of people”–I did not.
You assumed that “It is your personal opinion it is nonsense he would ever be recognized by the Church”–I did not.
You assumed that I stated something about you personally “assuaging” something –I did not.
You tells me not to judge ,then judge me as a phony.
You tell me to assume nothing about you ,then you assume away about what I’ve written.
I’ll leave it to others to judge whether your impious comments constitute hypocrisy.
One would wonder whether the time spent on all those sanctimonious maxims could have been better spent actually addressing infidelity; or today, what BE means to you.
Other than the status quo argument, is there any other reason the mountain should renamed after Harney?
Not “re-named… just named. For clarity, if we were going to name the mountain today, is there any good reason we would name it after General Harney? Obviously there are a lot of good reasons on the table why we wouldn’t. Can we agree on that much? Someone above mentioned “historical context.” Exactly the point. In the context of all of it’s history, what’s the right name for the mountain?
“its” not “it’s” sorry.
…having a “senior” typing day over here. 🙂
Maybe you should go back to bed. ‘-) I agree that if the mountain were to be named today, Harney is probably not one of the names that would come to mind. And I doubt Rushmore would be a name someone would come up with. Maybe we could rename Rushmore. Would Black Elk be a good name for that one? I really don’t care much one way or the other, but when they tried to rename Harney Peak to a name that is not able to be pronounced or even remembered, that is a non-starter. BTW, if we were going to name Harney Peak, I would go with Reagan Peak.
In the context of all of history what’s the best name for the mountain? I’ll listen to your sales pitch on Ronnie, duggersd, but I can’t imagine it being more persuasive than the ones offered for Black Elk, or even Hinhan Kaga for that matter. (Personally I kind of liked learning about that name… Hope I remembered it right, ‘cos I’m not gonna look it up. 🙂
The funny part about the Hinhan Kaga business is that isn’t even the right slab of rock that the 1800’s Indians called Hinhan Kaga. Tribal elder historian types tried to tell people that but all the white guilters out there just pushed ahead. I wish they would have called it Owl Maker or whatever, and then we’d all have to donk ourselves on the head when it turns out it was a big, rushed, libbie mistake.
But Grudz, your factual expose’ is 100% IRRELVANT to the SDDP’s “white knights rescuing the NAs” effort.
Facts don’t matter–it’s the good intentions!
Just look at the reference in the letter to Howitzers–they have no regard for the facts.
Bill, you make a fair point, but we are at a point that the Peak has a name. For example, no reason to call a fork a fork, but we’ve been doing it a long time. We could call it a llama, but why would we change? It’s just Harney, not General Harney, not whoever Harney, it’s the name of the peak I’ve hauled every one of my kids up on my back (when they were younger). No reason to change.
i like kneip knoll myself. if nothing else it would become a famous illustration of the silliness of english language rules.
AND since it’s in the vicinity of the deep underground science lab, how about the “antimatterhorn”
Not bad. Black Elk’s culture called it ‘the center of the universe.’ Who knows? Maybe it is. 🙂
Nice!
Per Curiam:
You said: “As in many other areas, many non-NAs (including Catholic spiritualists) have “adopted” BE for their own purposes: assuage white guilt, reconciliation, revisionism, mystic appeal, etc.”
I responded: “I suggest you not presume to know the motive of people who choose to hold Black Elk in high regard, especially since you don’t know me or many like me.”
You then asked: “Is it okay to presume you’re in the “etc.” category?”
I responded: “Assume nothing. You don’t know me. I’m assuaging nothing. I find the book “Black Elk Speaks” spiritually illuminating and edifying and have discerned nothing in conflict with my faith.”
I don’t want to argue with you. I think highly of Black Elk and would welcome the Peak being renamed in his honor. You disagree.
I’m comfortable with my rationale for both my position. You disagree.
I’ll agree to disagree.
“I’ll agree to disagree.”
More meaningless words written by an author who fails to follow them?
You’ve done more than just disagree–you’ve repeatedly misstated what I wrote, refused to that concede (or apologize) when you’ve done so, and most bizarrely, suggested that unless I allow others to investigate my internet history, I’m a “phony”.
That’s more that just “disagreeing”.
Until your behavior matches your pious words (as demonstrated on this thread & the Ashley Madison infidelity thread), your claims that you agree to disagree are simply more sanctimonious hypocrisy.
We already have the Black Elk Wilderness area. He’s being honored. What’s next, renaming city of Custer?
The MLK monument in DC needs to be removed as he was a widely-known womanizer; and a fake “doctor” as it’s been shown that he plagiarized large portions of his doctoral theses at Boston Univ.
The shame!!!
“widely-known womanizer”
Sorry, that should be “a widely-known human trafficker”.
Still, very shameful.
If they think people are going to quit calling it Harney Peak just because a few people decided to change it, think again. It will always be Harney Peak. All this renaming of monuments and sports teams etc is just nonsense brought up to make people who disagree look like racists. And the sad fact is that it works many times. Keep the name. I don’t know about Harney or Black Elk, have little interest in learning about them at this point, but I do know that for many years the highest peak in the Black Hills has been Harney Peak and there is no sane reason to change it.