Among the wrongs Democrats/socialists/communists (D/s/cs) delight in inflicting on Normal Americans is renaming all manner of things: military installations, schools, national monuments and landmarks, and anything else to comport with their contemporary woke views. History is useful to them only in that they can warp it to reflect, as all good communists do, the current party line. The Mummified Meat Puppet Administration, as one might imagine, has been busy indeed in this pursuit. But even before Joe Biden, government wasn’t resting.

Graphic: Black Elk Peak hike 25, Wikimedia Commons.org. CCA-SA 4.0 International

At 7242 feet, the highest point in South Dakota, Black Elk Peak, known as Harney Peak for more than a century and a half, provides an extraordinary vantage point. At the end of a four-mile hike beginning at Slyvan Lake in the southern Black Hills, a WPA-constructed stone watchtower still stands sentinel over the Hills. It was originally named for General William S. Harney, and locals, who weren’t consulted about the change—surprise—still refer to it as Harney Peak. It was renamed in 2016, ostensibly for Lakota Sioux shaman Black Elk, whose story was told in the classic western book Black Elk Speaks by John G. Neihardt, a book I taught to AP students.

Now, government is at it again. They want to change the name of our first national monument, Devil’s Tower, established in 1906 by Theodore Roosevelt. In 1875 Col. Richard I. Dodge escorted a U.S. Geological Survey expedition to NE Wyoming.  

Graphic: Devil's Tower, Author.

Colonel Dodge is generally credited with giving the formation its present name. In his book, entitled The Black Hills, published in 1876, he called it "Devils Tower," explaining "The Indians call this shaft The Bad God’s Tower, a name adopted with proper modification, by our surveyors." Newton, whose published work on the survey appeared in 1880, explained that the name Bear Lodge (Mateo Teepee) "appears on the earliest map of the region, and though more recently it is said to be known among the Indians as "the bad god's tower," or in better English, "the devil’s tower," the former name, well applied, is still retained." However, since that time, the name Devils Tower has been generally used. Geologists, on the other hand, have in some instances continued to use the original name. 

And as always, locals—The Tower is surrounded by ranch land--aren’t being consulted:

The federal Reconciliation in Place Names Committee, a subcommittee of the U.S. Board of Geographic Names, is recommending Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland submit a request to the Biden administration to change the name of "the sacred geographic feature in Wyoming known as 'Devils Tower'" and the unincorporated community surrounding it to Bear Lodge, which is what it was called by American Indians before it was Devils Tower.

Those lobbying for change claim some 20 tribes want the change, but those tribes do not agree on a name. It’s also being claimed the Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, can unilaterally change the name, a contention that would seem to be ill-founded: 

Under Title 54 of U.S. Code regarding American Antiquities, "no extension or establishment of national monuments in Wyoming may be undertaken except by express authorization of Congress."

One local objecting to the change is WY state Senate President Ogden Driskill:

Driskill said his family has been living and working the land adjacent to the national monument nearly as long as any Indigenous tribe that would consider it a sacred site. He described the recommendation to rename Devils Tower as "unbelievably offensive" to himself and many other Wyomingites.

"Our family's been here as long as anybody," he said. "Our family's intertwined with the tower since before it became a national monument, and it's just unbelievably offensive to me that they face down our family and pay absolutely no attention to the people that neighbor two sides of the monument."

Graphic: Devil's Tower, Author.

Fortunately, Wyoming’s congressional delegation has long opposed changing the name. Senator Cynthia Lummis:

"As the first national landmark, Devils Tower holds great significance to generations of people across Wyoming and is one of the Cowboy State's most iconic sights," she said. "We should not allow D.C. bureaucrats to unnecessarily change the name of this famous and cherished landmark."

Among the most important lessons I taught my students was not to try to impose contemporary beliefs on the past and not to change history to reflect transitory trends.  Doing that denies us the opportunity to learn from the past. Obviously, no one taught the current crop of DC bureaucrats that hard won wisdom.

Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.