4 thoughts on “Committee recommends keeping Harney Peak name”

  1. Finally, after a week of reckless legal decisions at the highest level, a dose of sanity here in SD.

  2. The first problem with this proposal was why did it need to be changed? I can see a consideration to change the name to honor Native Americans. The second problem with this proposal is the name chosen was pretty much impossible for English-speaking people to pronounce. The third problem with this proposal is the translation. “Making of Owls”? Wouldn’t that translate to “Owls having sex”?

  3. @dtuggersd …. The name needs to be changed because it’s as offensive to Native Americans as the Confederate flag is to African Americans. Harney was a butcher of native peoples and furthermore the Lacotah own the mountain (SCOTUS ruled) and white people have no standing in the naming. The commission just passed the blame to Washington so they wouldn’t be scorned at their Republican golf outings. IN ESSENCE …. I like to think the citizens of Sodak aren’t really bigoted towards the NDN’s so much as they have this deep seated, intensely intimate aversion to change which manifests itself and appears as bigotry to observers from elsewhere.

  4. Porter, I believe you are referring to when SCOTUS said the US stole the Black Hills from the Lakota. As I recall, that decision also set an amount that should have been paid, plus interest. Although the Lakota have never accepted the money, and it is substantial, for all practical purposes, they no longer own the Hills or Harney Peak. If you note my comment, the problem is not so much renaming it, but what was chosen. BTW, if Harney is to Native Americans what the Confederate battle flag is to African Americans, then they don’t have much to be offended about. The Confederate battle flag is about as racist as a Ford pickup. The battle flag is more about rebellion than about slavery.

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