Mount Evans name change hits mysterious snag

Jul 22, 2023

FILE PHOTO: Mount Evans Highway — or Colorado Highway 5. The renaming of Colorado's Mount Evans was abruptly halted Thursday just as the controversial issue appeared to be on a steady uphill climb.

The renaming of Colorado's Mount Evans was abruptly halted Thursday just as the controversial issue appeared to be on a steady uphill climb.

The U.S. Board on Geographic Names scheduled the final vote Thursday to change the name of Colorado's 12th highest peak, Mount Evans, to Mount Blue Sky. But a "request from a tribal government for a government-to-government consultation" regarding the renaming abruptly halted the meeting.

The Denver Gazette confirmed that the unhappy tribal government is the Northern Cheyenne, who defended what seemed like an abrupt turnaround as a slap in the face.

Tribal Administrator William Walks Along told The Denver Gazette from his home in Lame Deer, Montana, that he notified the state board about the renaming Dec. 10 and that the Northern Cheyenne would never approve of the name Mount Blue Sky.

"We sent a letter and said we hadn't been formally consulted with the state of Colorado," he said.

Walks Along added no one ever responded to him.

"We felt ignored," he said, "just like we were ignored at Sand Creek."

Walks Along dug in his heels Wednesday night notifying the federal board that the Northern Cheyenne supported changing Mount Evans to Mount Cheyenne Arapaho. He explained that The Northern Cheyenne are opposed to the name Mount Blue Sky because "Blue Sky is part of the Cheyenne Arrow Ceremony."

"It's a sacrilege to our Tribe to throw that phrase around in public," Walks Along said.

The iconic peak will keep the Evans name while the decision remains up in the air.

It had taken years of board meetings and 56 naming, or renaming, proposals to get to this point.

On Nov. 17, the Colorado Geographic Naming Advisory Board voted unanimously to rename Mount Evans to Mount Blue Sky. That state board had to watch Thursday's jolting developments from afar, as it hasn't met since then. The legislative terms of the board's legislative members expired at the end of 2022.

New members have not yet been appointed, although they are expected to be named in time for the board's next meeting on April 6.

But with that mid-November meeting, the issue was over for Colorado's side of the decision. The final call on a name change was to be made by the federal board during Thursday's meeting.

In an email obtained by The Denver Gazette entitled "BGN March 9 vote DEFERRED," Jennifer Runyon, a researcher with the Board of Geographic Names, canceled the meeting at the last minute, explaining to invitees that "The manual states, ‘a Tribe may request that the Department initiate consultation when the Tribe believes that a Bureau/ Office is considering a Departmental Action with Tribal Implications.’"

Mount Blue Sky's name was submitted by the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes of Oklahoma. Tribal Coordinator, Fred Mosqueda, said he was "shocked and disappointed" by the last-minute development.

"To me, everything was in order. We had a celebration in Denver over this new name moving forward," said Mosqueda. "You probably wouldn't do this unless you had a good reason."

Blue Sky is a name for the Arapaho People.

Gov. Jared Polis' support was considered a victory for the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho.

Just last week, Polis wrote a letter to the BGN.

"After decades of examination with respect to his role and exhaustive reports by both the University of Denver and Northwestern University, then Territorial Governor John Evans' culpability tacit or explicit for the Sand Creek Massacre is without question," according to the letter. "In August of 2021, I formally rescinded the bigoted, inhumane, and legally questionable proclamations made by then Territorial Governor Evans that led to the Sand Creek Massacre, the deadliest day in Colorado history."

The move to find a new title for the Clear Creek County mountain named for Evans comes two years after Polis reconvened Colorado's Geographic Naming Advisory Board.

Chris Arend, the communications director for the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, commented that for the Colorado board, the issue is out of their hands. They've made their recommendation, he said.

In addition, the state board's bylaws have no provision for revisiting a recommendation. Should the federal board reject the name change, the process would have to start over from scratch, with a new submission first to the federal board, which would then be forwarded to Colorado.

Ernest House Jr, who is a member of the Ute Mountain Ute, was taken aback by the announcement and is in support of the name Mount Blue Sky.

"I am surprised given the momentum we have been seeing by the state renaming commission, the governor's office, local and statewide support," House Jr. said. "Having said that, a Tribal nation requesting consultation is a serious matter."

The Board on Geographic Names did not specify what will happen next, but said there will be no further discussion of "pending proposals."

Randy Wheelock, a Clear Creek County Commissioner who has been instrumental in what has been a rollercoaster of a process, said that he hopes the BGN will move forward.

"The worst-case scenario is that the mountain is not renamed."

On this, Walks Along and the Northern Cheyenne agree, calling on everyone concerned to "regroup and rename the mountain."

What that will look like could be as complicated as Colorado's Western history.

"I don't think I realized until he died what a big impact he had on a lot of people."

Denver Enterprise Reporter

A 40-year Colorado news veteran, Carol McKinley started in radio, and traveled the world as a network TV correspondent/producer. In 2021, she decided to return to local news. A Baghdad alum, she has 4 grown children and lives with her husband and her mom.