Great Smoky Mountains ditches name of Confederate general

The highest mountain in Mississippi is to officially drop the name of a Confederate general.

The US Board of Geographic Names voted on Wednesday to change the name of Clingmans Dome in Great Smoky Mountains National Park to Kuwohi, following a request from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

Named after a confederate general for the past 150 years, the peak will now be known by its traditional Cherokee name, which translates to “mulberry place.”

“The Great Smoky National Park team was proud to support this effort to officially restore the mountain and to recognise its importance to the Cherokee people,” park superintendent Cassius Cash said.

“The Cherokee people have had strong connections to Kuwohi and the surrounding area, long before the land became a national park.

“The National Park Service looks forward to continuing to work with the Cherokee people to share their story and preserve this landscape together.”

The peak became known as Clingmans Dome following an 1859 survey by geographer Arnold Guyot, who named it for Thomas Lanier Clingman, a Confederate Brigadier General as well as a lawyer, US Representative and Senator from North Carolina, according to the park.

Efforts are already underway to update signage, website and other materials with the Kuwohi name - a process which is said to be expensive.

A history of change

California State Parks planning chief Alex Stehl previously said the cost of swapping the name of Patrick’s Point State Park in 2021 to Sue-meg State Park - its traditional native American name - ran to tens of thousands of dollars.

In that instance, switching signage and brochures alone cost $3,900, according to California State Parks spokeswoman Adeline Yee, who added that the cost for larger parks could be much higher.

The US Board on Geographic Names has previously renamed several other landmarks deemed offensive.

Squaw Peak in Phoenix, Arizona, changed its name in 2013 to Piestewa Peak - named after the first Native woman to die in combat serving in the US military, Lori Ann Piestewa.

In 2022, Mount Doane in Yellowstone National Park was renamed First Peoples Mountain after a unanimous vote by the group.

Last year, a proposal to change the name of Wayne National Park was met with opposition from lawmakers. The US Department of Agriculture Forest Service put forward the suggestion following concerns that the American Revolutionary leader who gave his name to the area participated in the genocide of Native Americans.

From across the pond

The renaming of national parks has also generated controversy in the UK.

In 2022, Snowdonia National Park officials voted to refer to Wales’ highest mountain by its Welsh name, rather than the English equivalent.

As a result, Snowdon and Snowdonia were officially renamed Yr Wyddfa and Eryri.

Kuwohi is a sacred place for the Cherokee people and is the highest point within the traditional Cherokee homeland, according to the park. The peak is visible from the Qualla Boundary, home of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

Located on the Tennessee-North Carolina border, Great Smoky Mountains National Park is America’s most visited national park, and Kuwohi is one its most popular sites, with more than 650,000 visitors per year.

The park closes Kuwohi every year for three half-days so that predominantly Cherokee schools can visit the mountain and learn its history.

The name-restoration proposal was submitted in January by Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Principal Chief Michell Hicks following an effort started in 2022 by two Cherokee members Lavita Hill and Mary Crowe.

“Naming the mountain after (Clingman) sort of strips down all of the history of the Cherokee people,” Hill previously said.

“It undermines everything that our people are in order to rename it after someone with zero ties to our community. He didn’t even live here.”