Gov. Jared Polis endorses name change of Mount Evans to Mount Blue Sky | SummitDaily.com
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Gov. Jared Polis endorses name change of Mount Evans to Mount Blue Sky

US Board of Geographic Names to consider name change at Thursday meeting

Kieran Nicholson
The Denver Post
Mount Evans is photographed from the summit of Mount Bierstadt on Aug. 8, 2022.
Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post

Governor Jared Polis has endorsed a collaborative proposal to change the name of Mount Evans to Mount Blue Sky. The historic change could happen this coming week.

The U.S. Board of Geographic Names meets Thursday, in Reston, Va., and a broad-based recommendation to change the mountain’s name is on the federal board’s agenda, which could include a ratification vote.

On Tuesday, Polis wrote to Trent Palmer, BGN executive secretary, domestic names, endorsing the change on behalf of the State of Colorado and stakeholders, including the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes. Clear Creek County and the Colorado Geographic Naming Advisory Board (CGNAB) also have endorsed the name change.



“Simply put, Governor Evans didn’t just engage in warfare against Native Americans, but facilitated the senseless slaughter of non-combatants including large numbers of women, children, and the elderly by his proclamation and acknowledged initiative to fully eliminate eastern Colorado of any Native American presence and actions further empowering Colonel John Chivington,” Polis wrote in the letter.

The landmark, a Colorado 14er, is named for John Evans, a territorial governor who resigned after U.S. Soldiers, lead by Chivington, in southeastern Colorado attacked and killed hundreds of Cheyenne and Arapaho people, in the Sand Creek Massacre, after a peace deal had been reached in 1864.



Read more at DenverPost.com.


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