Page 19 - Mount Evans News Today

DENVER — Mount Evans, the Colorado fourteener named after the state’s disgraced territorial governor, now has a new name: Mount Blue Sky.

Tribal leaders are now focusing their efforts on changing the name of the adjacent Mount Evans Wilderness Area to Mount Blue Sky Wilderness area

Tribal leaders are now focusing their efforts on changing the name of the adjacent Mount Evans Wilderness Area to Mount Blue Sky Wilderness area

Federal officials on Friday renamed a towering mountain southwest of Denver as part of a national effort to address the history of oppression and violence against Native Americans. The U.S. Board on Geographic Names voted overwhelmingly to change Mount Evans to Mount Blue Sky at the request of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes and with the approval of Colorado Gov. Jared Polis.

Applause erupted from the crowd as they listened to a federal board’s decision to rename Mount Evans in Colorado to Mount Blue Sky. Some of those cheering were listening virtually as the U.S. …

Mount Evans, the Colorado fourteener in Clear Creek County that was named after the state's disgraced territorial governor John Evans, now has a new name.

Tribal leaders are now focusing their efforts on changing the name of the adjacent Mount Evans Wilderness Area to Mount Blue Sky Wilderness area

The U.S. Board on Geographic Names officially renamed Mount Evans to Mount Blue Sky during the Council of Geographic Names Authorities conference Friday afternoon. The name change happened after two nation-to-nation consultations with tribal leaders, according to a press release issued Friday by the U.S. Department of the Interior. Tribal leaders advocated for the name change because Mt. Evans was named after John Evans, who served as territorial governor of Colorado from 1862 to 1865.

Reggie Wassana, a tribal governor in Colorado, says the U.S. is taking a "huge step" toward healing with the renaming of Mount Evans -- honoring a territorial governor who resigned after the militarys 1864 Sand Creek Massacre -- to Mount Blue Sky, a traditional name for the Arapaho and a Cheyenne renewal-of-life rite.

Members of US Board on Geographic Names vote to change name of Mount Evans to Mount Blue sky at request of tribes