Grade 10 | Unit 2 | Lesson 2

Strand World History

TITLE: What’s in a Name? Duration: 1-2 days

Lesson Overview
What are the implications of colonization for indigenous people? This lesson establishes a common definition
for “colonization” and sets the context for the rest of the unit. The idea of perspective -- there are at least two
sides to every story -- and the importance of names to cultural identity are the guiding concepts.
Learning Targets Assessed How We Will Know Students Met Learning Targets
NM: World History Think/Pair/Write/Share
 I can determine the significance of names on Reflection
cultural identity.
Guided Reading Question Reflections
 I can define colonialism.
 I can analyze the actions of competing
European nations for colonies around the
world and the impact those actions had on
indigenous populations.

CCSS ELA
Reading
 I can determine important information in text.
 I can determine the meaning of words or
phrases in a context.
Advance Preparation Teacher Notes
 Cue the video clip: Obama to rename Mt.
McKinley to Denali during Alaska visit
 Prepare introductory reading: Beyond Denali:
Restoring Native American Names
 Post the learning targets.
 Prepare work time reading: Aboriginal Place
Names in Canada

Grade 10 Unit2 Lesson2 Strand World History

  Prepare Three Shares Group Discussion
Agenda Materials
I. Introduction Video: Obama to rename Mt. McKinley to Denali
Article: Beyond Denali: Restoring Native American
A. How Does a Name Shape a Cultural Identity?
Names
B. Unpacking the Learning Targets
Reflection journals
Definitions of colonialism
II. Work Time
Poster paper
A. What is Colonization? Markers
B. Understanding Aboriginal Place Names Tape
Reading: Aboriginal Place Names in Canada
III. Synthesis Place names guided reading questions
Counters (poker chips, marbles, rocks) and Basket
A. Reflecting - The Story of Colonization Definition of Aborigine
Vocabulary
Tier II Tier III
Evidence Colonization
Subjugation Indigenous
Aborigines
Introduction Differentiation Strategies
A. How Does a Name Shape a Cultural Identity? (20 minutes) Varied resources for
exploring the notion of
1. Show the CBS Morning News Clip: Obama to rename Mt. McKinley to
naming.
Denali during Alaska visit.
2. Review the article Beyond Denali: Restoring Native American Partner sharing allows
a. While viewing, have students consider the notion of whether or students access to other
not shifting the name of the tallest mountain in Alaska from Mt. opinions and perspectives
McKinley to Denali is an act of renaming or restoring. What is the to assimilate into their
significance of this action? own reflections.
b. Elbow Partner Share: With your elbow partner discuss the power
in naming and how naming affects a cultural identity.
c. In their Reflection Journals, invite students to individually reflect
on the question/s:
■ What is the power in naming?
■ How does naming affect a cultural identity?
d. Whole group debrief: Whip Around. Ask students to share a quick
thought about the significance a name plays in cultural identity.
B. Unpacking the Learning Targets (5 min)
1. Ask students to identify any words with which they are unfamiliar. If
necessary, review the meaning of the word indigenous.
2. Explain to students that throughout this unit they will have an
opportunity to explore more deeply, the impact that European nations
had on indigenous populations throughout colonial times.

Grade 10 Unit2 Lesson2 Strand World History

Work Time Differentiation Strategies
A. Think/Write/Pair/Share: What is colonization? (20 min) Mixed grouping allows all
students access to the
1. Share definitions of colonization with students.
content and solutions.
2. Working in pairs, invite students to analyze the given definitions of
colonization with the intention of developing their own definition. Counters for a discussion
3. Think-Write-Pair-Share. assure that all students an
a. In their Reflection Journals, have students synthesize the opportunity to contribute
definitions and write their own. to the discussion.
b. When they have completed crafting their definition, students turn
to their partner and share.
c. Invite partners to develop a collaborative definition and write it
on a note-card.
d. Group share out: Have partners share their definitions and post
them prominently.

B. Understanding Aboriginal Place Names (60 min)

In order to understand the impact of colonialism on native peoples more fully, we
will need to explore the way native peoples named the places they lived. The
intention is for students to discover what the names of places were before the
arrival of colonizers, how and why these names changed with the coming of the
colonizers, and in what ways renaming might change the identity of a place.
1. Going Deeper: Ask students to consider the questions:
a. What is the significance of names and how is perception different
in different cultures?
b. How do names represent cultures or cultural beliefs?
2. Define aborigine. Post the Definition of Aborigine.
a. Ask students to compare and contrast aboriginal and Indigenous.
3. Have students read the article, Aboriginal Place Names in Canada, once
through.
4. Distribute copies of the Place Names Guided Reading Questions.
5. Invite students to review the questions. Ask them if they have any
clarifying questions.
6. In small groups of 3 or 4, have students answer the questions and record
their responses. Require students to reference the text to support their
responses.
7. Debrief - Three Shares Group Discussion.
a. Discuss the following questions as a group:
■ What is the significance of naming and how is the
perception of names different in different cultures?
■ How do names represent cultures or cultural beliefs?
b. Give each student three “counters” (poker chips, rocks, marbles,
etc.) Arrange students in a large circle and place a basket in the
middle of the circle.

Grade 10 Unit2 Lesson2 Strand World History

 c. Ask students to reference the discussion questions and have them
posted for their reference.
d. Explain to students that they can each contribute three comments
to the discussion and each time they contribute, they must place
one of their counters/objects in the basket.
■ Discussion contributions must address the questions
directly and/or bounce off of another students’ comment
and reference the lesson content.
e. Ask a student to begin the discussion by addressing one of the
questions - placing one of your counters in the basket. The
discussion is complete when all students have contributed to the
conversation three times.
Teacher participates in the discussion, following the protocol, and adds a
culminating comment to end the discussion.
Synthesis Differentiation Strategies
A. Reflecting - The Story of Colonization (10 min)
1. Read this quote multiple times with students and elicit student
reflections to the quote:
“How can I tell a story we already know too well? Her name was
Africa. His was France. He colonized her, exploited her, silenced
her, and even decades after it was supposed to have ended, still
acted with a high hand in resolving her affairs in places like Côte
d'Ivoire, a name she had been given because of her export
products, not her own identity.
Her name was Asia. His was Europe. Her name was silence. His
was power. Her name was poverty. His was wealth. Her name was
Her, but what was hers? His name was His, and he presumed
everything was his, including her, and he thought he could take
her without asking and without consequences. It was a very old
story, though its outcome had been changing a little in recent
decades. And this time around the consequences are shaking a lot
of foundations, all of which clearly needed shaking.
Who would ever write a fable as obvious, as heavy-handed as the
story we've been given?” -Rebecca Solnit.
2. In their Reflection Journals, have students respond to this quote,
reflecting on the lessons’ impacts of naming and colonization.
a. Reflection Journal Prompt: Complete the following statement in
your journals… “Her name was Canada, his was Europe…”
Cold call on students, after they’ve had a chance to write, to share their
reflective writing on naming and colonization.

Grade 10 Unit2 Lesson2 Strand World History

Resources:
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE CENTENNIAL
Beyond Denali: Restoring Native American names
Katia Hetter, CNN • Updated 30th June 2016
(CNN) — There's power in naming.
In some cases, streets, cities, natural wonders and even countries are renamed by the winning side of a battle or
war.
Often times, it's the surveyors coming after the battles that have been fought, mapping "unexplored" regions and
making these places their namesake or giving the honor to politicians in power just because they can.
Which explains why Denali, the Alaskan mountain that is the tallest U.S. peak, had been called McKinley since
1896, before William McKinley even won his Republican bid for president. That is, until U.S. Interior Secretary
Sally Jewell restored the mountain to Denali, an Athabascan (Native Alaskan) name for "great one" on August 30.
Obama renames tallest U.S. peak
Denali and other natural wonders that have stood on the North American continent for millennia were named for
European explorers, American presidents and others, even though they had been named by Native American
nations thousands of years earlier.
Sometimes colonists or U.S. citizens renaming these natural wonders chose to respect enshrined Native American
names. Maine's Mount Katahdin, the northernmost point of the Appalachian Trail, was named the "Greatest
Mountain" by the Penobscot Indians and retains that name.
The Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area in Georgia retains the Native American word
"Chattahoochee," which the National Park Service says is "thought to mean 'River of Painted Rocks.' "
Several state names are Native American in origin. The names of Massachusetts and Minnesota come from the
language of the Massachusetts-area Algonquian Indians and the Dakota Sioux name for sky-tinted water,
respectively.
But many natural wonders still retain names chosen by people who came after the Native Americans. And there's
a loss of history when those traditional names are replaced, according to some experts.
"For traditional societies, place names were typically associated with histories and stories and mnemonic devices
to aid those societies to find knowledge about anything, such as our environment or who we are as a society,"
said Jay Johnson, a University of Kansas associate professor of geography, whose research focuses on indigenous
peoples' cultural survival.
When other people come in and change the names, "there's certain loss of knowledge," said Johnson. "The
restoration of traditional place names is an acknowledgment of traditional society, an acknowledgment of their
knowledge of the landscape and their history."
Some Native Americans connected to land refuse to give up the fight to restore those names or find other Native
names that fit, and they are increasingly joined by non-Native allies.
They often petition their state board on geographic names and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, a federal

Grade 10 Unit2 Lesson2 Strand World History

interagency board that standardizes geographic names. The board has not been directed to restore Native
American names of places, although the board's Domestic Names Committee does consult with tribes on name
proposals.
"It's not the board's mission to restore historical names," says Louis Yost, the federal board's executive secretary
and a staffer at the U.S. Geological Survey. "It tends to go along with local use and preference. In (the) case of
Denali, that's how everyone up there, the locals, Native or not, refer to the local features."
That was the case for Alaska's Black River, which Yost said was restored in 2014 to its Gwich'in name, Draanjik
River. The reinstated name translates to "caches along the river."
Another is Hawadax Island, part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, which had previously been
named Rat Island. The island had been overrun by rats hundreds of years ago and its ecology destroyed after a
Japanese vessel shipwrecked there.
The Nature Conservancy worked with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Island Conservation to remove the
rats and restore the island's ecology to make it habitable for birds again, said Rand Hagenstein, the Nature
Conservancy's Alaska director. The group's Native Aleut partners helped restore the name, which the U.S. Board
of Geographic Names made official in 2012.
The English name given to the island reminds people of what Hagenstein calls the ecological insult. Restoring the
island's ecology and giving it a native name got rid of "the ecological insult and name insult and put back
appropriate names from first peoples of Alaska," he said.
More change may be on the way.
A spiritual leader from the Lakota Nation in Wyoming has petitioned the federal government to change the name
of Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming to Bear Lodge National Monument. "Bear Lodge" is the English
translation of an early name for the site, which researchers speculate was misinterpreted as "Bad Gods," followed
by "Devils Tower."
However, there's division among locals about the need to rename the monument. Local and state politicians have
said it would be expensive to rename a popular tourist destination and that the proposed name would cause
confusion with other spots named "Bear Lodge."
A proposal to rename South Dakota's Harney Peak with "Hinhan Kaga (Making of Owls)" failed at the state level.
The South Dakota Board on Geographic Names voted to retain the name "Harney Peak," citing a lack of consensus
within the state on a replacement name.
Another proposal to change "Harney Peak" to "Black Elk Peak" is still before the national board. But it may not
succeed in the face of opposition by the state board.
While there's lots of debate over renaming Mount Rainier in Washington state, the U.S. board has already
rejected that idea, so it's not likely to come up again soon.
There's not much debate within Alaska over Denali.
In Alaska, non-Native Alaskans and Native Alaskans alike call the great mountain "Denali." The national park was
named "Denali National Park and Reserve" in 1980, but even Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski couldn't get

Grade 10 Unit2 Lesson2 Strand World History

legislation passed in Congress to change the mountain's name back to Denali. (Ohio's congressional delegation,
McKinley's home state, opposed the move.)
"The name McKinley was a name bestowed on the mountain honoring someone who had never been here," said
Hagenstein. "Sure, he was a fine leader but he had no connection with Alaska."
"Denali is the great one, and it's an impressive and imposing part of our landscape," he said. "It means a lot to
have the original name associated with it. Anything we can do to maintain and deepen our connection to land is a
good thing."
And whether people live in Alaska or Outside (as Alaskans put it, with a capital "O"), people benefit from a sense
of time that stretches back before the first European explorers, Johnson said.
"For all Americans, it helps us to know our longer history," said Johnson. "While some people argue that McKinley
has been the name for more than 100 years, Denali is a name that's been there for thousands of years. Isn't that
longer history important to know for us to know as Americans?"
Definitions of colonization:
Definition #1 of colonization
LaRocque, E., PhD. (n.d.). Colonization and Racism. Retrieved January 09, 2018, from
http://www3.nfb.ca/enclasse/doclens/visau/index.php?mode=theme&language=
english&theme=30662&film=&excerpt=&submode=about&expmode=2
Colonization can be defined as some form of invasion, dispossession and subjugation of a peoples. The invasion
need not be military; it can begin—or continue—as geographical intrusion in the form of agricultural, urban or
industrial encroachments.
Definition #2 of colonialism
“Colonialism.” Colonialism - New World Encyclopedia, www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Colonialism.
Colonialism is the extension of a nation's sovereignty over territory beyond its borders by the establishment of
either settler colonies or administrative dependencies in which indigenous populations are directly ruled or
displaced. Colonizing nations generally dominate the resources, labor, and markets of the colonial territory, and
may also impose socio-cultural, religious and linguistic structures on the conquered population.
Definition of Aborigine
Colonialism. (n.d.). Retrieved January 09, 2018, from http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Colonialism
1. a member of the original people to inhabit an area especially as contrasted with an invading or colonizing
people

2. a member of any of the indigenous peoples of Australia

Place Names Guided Reading Questions

Directions: After you read the assigned article, discuss it with your partners. Go back through the reading and
answer the questions for your reading only.

Grade 10 Unit2 Lesson2 Strand World History

Aboriginal place names in Canada
Good Land map
A. What does the map tell you about indigenous people in Canada?
B. Explain what the author means by the statement, “Place names are a complex issue in Canada.”
C. What do you think is meant by the author’s statement, “More Indigenous territory has been claimed by
maps than by guns… and more Indigenous territory can be reclaimed and defended by maps than by
guns.”
D. What has been the impact of colonial place names on the Indigenous Peoples?
Renaming the Person
A. Describe the ways in which the story of the “girl in Iceland” support the author’s argument about naming?
B. What prompted the family name change from “White” to Waabshkii’ogin?
C. Using textual evidence, explain the difference between the European way of naming and the indigenous
way.
Discuss the reading and your answers and write down why naming was important in Canada. Also, what cultural
beliefs can you describe?
Place Names Guided Reading (Teacher Copy)
Directions: After you read the assigned article, discuss it with your partners. Go back through the reading and
answer the questions.
Aboriginal place names in Canada
Good Land map
E. What does the map tell you about indigenous people in Canada?
○ The gist is that the indigenous people don’t feel valued.
F. Explain what the author means by the statement, “Place names are a complex issue in Canada.”
○ The author describes how some places have been given indigenous names, like Toronto, but the
meaning behind them is lost.
G. What do you think is meant by the author’s statement, “More Indigenous territory has been claimed by
maps than by guns… and more Indigenous territory can be reclaimed and defended by maps than by
guns.”
○ This statement supports the idea that colonizers came to different lands and claimed them by
giving them names, verses through warfare, even though the native peoples already claim to these
lands and indigenous names for them.
H. What has been the impact of colonial place names on the Indigenous Peoples?
○ By naming the lands, the colonizers were able to claim that the land was “empty” and that
Indigenous People did not own it.

Renaming the Person

A. Describe the ways in which the story of the “girl in Iceland” support the author’s argument about naming?
○ By not choosing an “approved” legal name, her parents are rejecting the names given by the
colonizers.
B. What prompted the family name change from “White” to Waabshkii’ogin?
○ The translator wasn’t fluent in the native language, so he shortened the name to something easily
written in English.

Grade 10 Unit2 Lesson2 Strand World History

 C. Using textual evidence, explain the difference between the European way of naming and the indigenous
way.
○ Europeans have first and last names. Indigenous people traditionally had only one name. For
example, the author’s partner’s traditional name is “Waabshii’ogin” and there is traditionally a
deeper meaning in the indigenous name tied to the surroundings natural and circumstantial as well
as cultural ideas.

Discuss the reading and your answers and write down why naming was important in Canada. Also, what cultural
beliefs can you describe?
Answers will vary, however, a good answer will include the idea that naming was tied to the languages of
Canada. Indigenous peoples of Canada typically had only one name, not two, describing what they saw.
Naming probably had something to do with the area and cultural ideas.
Aboriginal place names in Canada
Belcourt , C., Alicia Elliott May 21, 2015, Betty Ann Lavallée Jun 2, 2015, Kelly Rose Pflug-Back Jan 2, 2015, &
Hannah Campbell Jun 30, 2015. (2013, July 01). Reclaiming ourselves by name. Retrieved January 09, 2018, from
https://briarpatchmagazine.com/articles/view/reclaiming-ourselves-by-name
Reclaiming ourselves by name
Contesting Canada’s colonial names, by language and by map
by Christi Belcourt

Good Land (detail view) by Christi Belcourt, Acrylic and ink on canvas

Grade 10 Unit2 Lesson2 Strand World History

First Nations, Ojibwa, Blackfoot, Indian, Aboriginal, Treaty, Half-breed, Cree, Status Indian. These are all familiar
English words, but none of them are the names by which we, the various Indigenous Peoples, called ourselves in
our own languages.
How many Canadians have heard these names: Nehiyaw, Nehiyawak, Otipemisiwak, and Apeetogosan? These are
who I am because these are the names my grandparents used. Even “Métis” is not the name people called
themselves in Manitou Sakhahigan, the community in which my dad, Tony, was born and raised. And even that
place is primarily known by its English/French name “Lac Ste. Anne.”
Place names are a complex issue in Canada. Some argue that Canada reflects its Indigenous roots in many place
names derived from Indigenous languages, even though the origins and meanings of those names have been
erased in the history that Canadians tell each other. Toronto is a case in point.
Most Canadians are quite comfortable with, and even comforted by, the Indigenous origins of the names of the
places they call home. But only to a point. The names must remain vague – empty references – rather than carry
the burden of Canada’s colonial history and the erasure of Indigenous ownership of lands.
Too many Canadians have a quaint notion that Canada was founded by the English and French, with the
contributions of Indigenous Peoples little more than a few names like “Manitoba” and some help in the War of
1812. Regardless, for those with knowledge deeper than a puddle, the renaming of lakes, rivers, and lands by the
settler state is widely recognized as a colonialist tool used extensively throughout North, Central, and South
America.
As the famed University of California Berkeley geographer Bernard Nietschmann put it, “More Indigenous
territory has been claimed by maps than by guns. And more Indigenous territory can be reclaimed and defended
by maps than by guns.”

Mnidoo Mnissing (detail view) by Christi Belcourt, Acrylic on canvas

Whether intentional or not, the effect of colonial place names on the Canadian psyche has been to perpetuate the

Grade 10 Unit2 Lesson2 Strand World History

myth that there were vast empty territories, what Europeans called terra nullius, available for the taking. Equally
damaging is the belief that Indigenous Peoples were immigrants to North America, like the Europeans after them,
and therefore Indigenous ownership over the lands was somehow only temporary until Europeans arrived. These
colonial myths remain at the heart of ongoing conflicts over land today.
The educational system has failed Canadians as much as it has failed Indigenous Peoples, for the history
Canadians tell each other about Canada is not the history Indigenous people share with each other about this
land. Canadian history, as written by Canadians, is so incomplete and devoid of Indigenous history and knowledge
that it leads many Indigenous people to believe Canadians are, well, dumb. Not dumb generally, just behind the
curve when it comes to Indigenous issues and history and being able to discuss credible paths forward. I
recognize, however, this is often through no fault of individuals themselves. How can we expect Canadians to
know what they aren’t taught?
Renaming the person
This winter, CBC reported on the story of a girl in Iceland who is listed simply as “girl” on her birth certificate. It
seems the name her parents chose does not conform to the 1,800-odd pre-approved legal names for girls in
Iceland. An online poll asked Canadians if they agreed with Iceland’s “official name list.” Not surprisingly, about
60 per cent disagreed.
My partner is Anishinaabe. Like so many Indigenous people, his Anishinaabe name is not the name on his birth
certificate. He is currently trying to get his name changed to his great-grandfather’s name, which was
Waabshkii’ogin (pronounced Waab-shkee-o-gun meaning “white feather”). One name. Not a first and last name.
All one name.
Perhaps his great-grandfather did have other names, but the name that stuck as the family name became
“White” because, as the story goes, Waabshkii’ogin was the name he had at the time people were registered in
Treaty 3 territory. All names were listed in English, and the translator, not fluent in Anishinaabemowin, shortened
it to “White” on the official record.
According to Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC), “As early as 1850, the colonial
government in British North America began to keep and maintain records to identify individual Indians and the
bands to which they belonged. These records helped agents of the Crown to determine which people were
eligible for treaty and interest benefits under specific treaties.” In 1951, those lists officially became the Indian
Register.
Department documents further state: “Under the Indian Act, the Registrar – an employee of AANDC – is the sole
authority for determining which names will be added, deleted, or omitted from the Register.” So while
registration for “Indians” is done in Ottawa, legal name changes are the jurisdiction of the provinces.
In Ontario, this happens in Thunder Bay. We’ve learned that a legal name in Canada must contain a “first and last
name.” Consequently, my partner’s attempt to reclaim a family name like Waabshkii’ogin and return to his
community’s traditional forms of naming, with no separate last names, is outlawed in Canada. Suddenly Iceland’s
strange naming policies don’t seem so foreign.
How can we as Indigenous Peoples begin to reclaim our own names and discard our colonial past if our names are
not even legally possible, if they must conform to Eurocentric norms of naming and identity?

Grade 10 Unit2 Lesson2 Strand World History

My own attempts at reclaiming are done one name and one word at a time. One by one, I am trying to learn the
original names of places around me and speak their names out into words. I am awakening into sounds and songs
my respect for the places of my ancestors and the sacred ground I walk on.

A Work in Progress (detail view) by Christi Belcourt, Acrylic and map residue on canvas
Christi Belcourt is an Otipemisiwak (Métis) artist who lives and works in Espanola, ON. Currently her work can be
seen within Sakahàn, the international Indigenous art exhibit at the National Gallery of Canada.
(CNN) — There's power in naming.

In some cases, streets, cities, natural wonders and even countries are renamed by the winning side of a battle or
war.
Often times, it's the surveyors coming after the battles that have been fought, mapping "unexplored" regions and
making these places their namesake or giving the honor to politicians in power just because they can.
Which explains why Denali, the Alaskan mountain that is the tallest U.S. peak, had been called McKinley since
1896, before William McKinley even won his Republican bid for president. That is, until U.S. Interior Secretary
Sally Jewell restored the mountain to Denali, an Athabascan (Native Alaskan) name for "great one" on August 30.
Obama renames tallest U.S. peak
Denali and other natural wonders that have stood on the North American continent for millennia were named
for European explorers, American presidents and others, even though they had been named by Native
American nations thousands of years earlier.
Sometimes colonists or U.S. citizens renaming these natural wonders chose to respect enshrined Native
American names. Maine's Mount Katahdin, the northernmost point of the Appalachian Trail, was named the

Grade 10 Unit2 Lesson2 Strand World History

"Greatest Mountain" by the Penobscot Indians and retains that name.
The Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area in Georgia retains the Native American word
"Chattahoochee," which the National Park Service says is "thought to mean 'River of Painted Rocks.' "
Several state names are Native American in origin. The names of Massachusetts and Minnesota come from the
language of the Massachusetts-area Algonquian Indians and the Dakota Sioux name for sky-tinted water,
respectively.
But many natural wonders still retain names chosen by people who came after the Native Americans. And
there's a loss of history when those traditional names are replaced, according to some experts.
"For traditional societies, place names were typically associated with histories and stories and mnemonic
devices to aid those societies to find knowledge about anything, such as our environment or who we are as a
society," said Jay Johnson, a University of Kansas associate professor of geography, whose research focuses on
indigenous peoples' cultural survival.
When other people come in and change the names, "there's certain loss of knowledge," said Johnson. "The
restoration of traditional place names is an acknowledgment of traditional society, an acknowledgment of their
knowledge of the landscape and their history."
Some Native Americans connected to land refuse to give up the fight to restore those names or find other
Native names that fit, and they are increasingly joined by non-Native allies.
They often petition their state board on geographic names and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, a federal
interagency board that standardizes geographic names. The board has not been directed to restore Native
American names of places, although the board's Domestic Names Committee does consult with tribes on name
proposals.
"It's not the board's mission to restore historical names," says Louis Yost, the federal board's executive
secretary and a staffer at the U.S. Geological Survey. "It tends to go along with local use and preference. In
(the) case of Denali, that's how everyone up there, the locals, Native or not, refer to the local features."
That was the case for Alaska's Black River, which Yost said was restored in 2014 to its Gwich'in name, Draanjik
River. The reinstated name translates to "caches along the river."
Another is Hawadax Island, part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, which had previously been
named Rat Island. The island had been overrun by rats hundreds of years ago and its ecology destroyed after a
Japanese vessel shipwrecked there.
The Nature Conservancy worked with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Island Conservation to remove the
rats and restore the island's ecology to make it habitable for birds again, said Rand Hagenstein, the Nature
Conservancy's Alaska director. The group's Native Aleut partners helped restore the name, which the U.S.
Board of Geographic Names made official in 2012.
The English name given to the island reminds people of what Hagenstein calls the ecological insult. Restoring
the island's ecology and giving it a native name got rid of "the ecological insult and name insult and put back
appropriate names from first peoples of Alaska," he said.

Grade 10 Unit2 Lesson2 Strand World History

More change may be on the way.
A spiritual leader from the Lakota Nation in Wyoming has petitioned the federal government to change the
name of Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming to Bear Lodge National Monument. "Bear Lodge" is the
English translation of an early name for the site, which researchers speculate was misinterpreted as "Bad
Gods," followed by "Devils Tower."
However, there's division among locals about the need to rename the monument. Local and state politicians
have said it would be expensive to rename a popular tourist destination and that the proposed name would
cause confusion with other spots named "Bear Lodge."
A proposal to rename South Dakota's Harney Peak with "Hinhan Kaga (Making of Owls)" failed at the state
level. The South Dakota Board on Geographic Names voted to retain the name "Harney Peak," citing a lack of
consensus within the state on a replacement name.
Another proposal to change "Harney Peak" to "Black Elk Peak" is still before the national board. But it may not
succeed in the face of opposition by the state board.
While there's lots of debate over renaming Mount Rainier in Washington state, the U.S. board has already
rejected that idea, so it's not likely to come up again soon.
There's not much debate within Alaska over Denali.
In Alaska, non-Native Alaskans and Native Alaskans alike call the great mountain "Denali." The national park
was named "Denali National Park and Reserve" in 1980, but even Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski couldn't
get legislation passed in Congress to change the mountain's name back to Denali. (Ohio's congressional
delegation, McKinley's home state, opposed the move.)
"The name McKinley was a name bestowed on the mountain honoring someone who had never been here,"
said Hagenstein. "Sure, he was a fine leader but he had no connection with Alaska."
"Denali is the great one, and it's an impressive and imposing part of our landscape," he said. "It means a lot to
have the original name associated with it. Anything we can do to maintain and deepen our connection to land
is a good thing."

And whether people live in Alaska or Outside (as Alaskans put it, with a capital "O"), people benefit from a
sense of time that stretches back before the first European explorers, Johnson said.

"For all Americans, it helps us to know our longer history," said Johnson. "While some people argue that
McKinley has been the name for more than 100 years, Denali is a name that's been there for thousands of
years. Isn't that longer history important to know for us to know as Americans?"

Grade 10 Unit2 Lesson2 Strand World History