Tribes plan protest to change Yellowstone valley, peak names

Two tribes plan to demonstrate in favor of renaming a valley and a mountain in Yellowstone National Park associated with men who advocated and carried out slaughter of Native Americans.

Leaders of the Blackfoot Confederacy and Great Sioux Nation will gather Saturday at Yellowstone’s North Entrance near Gardiner, Montana.

The tribes seek to change the name of the Hayden Valley to Buffalo Nations Valley.

Hayden Valley is named for Ferdinand Hayden, a geologist whose explorations inspired the park’s establishment in 1872 but who also called for exterminating American Indians.

The tribes also want to rename Mount Doane, named for U.S. Army Lt. Gustavus Doane. Doane took part in killing dozens of noncombatant Indians in Montana in 1870.

Yellowstone Superintendent Dan Wenk says the names are “an important and sensitive issue.”