Help Us Rid Jefferson Davis’ Name from Public Lands in Montana

Update Nov. 19 — Today, Interior Sec. Deb Haaland signed an order creating a committee to review the names of derogatory names on public lands.

Below is a statement from Wild Montana Deputy Director John Todd regarding this order:

“We support and commend Sec. Haaland’s order today creating the Advisory Committee on Reconciliation in Place Names, a much needed step towards eliminating racist and offensive names used for public lands. We believe one of the committee’s first orders of business should be to recommend that three locations in Montana currently named after Jefferson Davis be renamed, that is Jeff Davis Peak and Jeff Davis Creek in Beaverhead County, as well as Davis Gulch in Lewis and Clark County. There is no reasonable argument for Montana to continue honoring a white supremacist, racist, and traitorous defender of slavery. Ridding his name from public lands will, moreover, send a message that all people are welcome to enjoy those lands.”

Earlier this year, we launched an effort to rename three places in Montana currently honoring Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America and defender of slavery, white supremacy, and racism to his dying days.

We joined with The Montana Racial Equity Project, Forward Montana Foundation, Montana Human Rights Network, The Wilderness Society, and with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) in submitting a petition to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names requesting that it rename all places currently named after Davis.

The Board on Geographic Names is now considering our petition, but we need your help to influence their decision. You can help by submitting a letter to the board, which takes less than a minute.

The places we’re asking be renamed are Jeff Davis Peak and Jeff Davis Creek in the Beaverhead Mountains southwest of Dillon, as well as Davis Gulch, just south of Helena in Lewis and Clark County.

As we learned in a quarterly review issued by the Board on Geographic Names, which included mention of our petition and the historical context in which the Davis name appeared in Montana, there were many Confederate sympathizers and ex-soldiers living in southwest Montana when these places acquired their names. Many of them swore their allegiance to Davis, even after the Civil War was over.

We believe the features on the map of Montana should bear the names that make our public lands more welcoming and inclusive, not less.

That’s why, along with the CSKT and other partners, we’ve requested these places be given names that honor the area’s Native inhabitants and Chinese immigrants.

We’ve recommended the Board on Geographic Names change the name of Jeff Davis Peak to Three Eagles Peak, in honor of Salish Chief Three Eagles. He welcomed Lewis and Clark’s Corp of Discovery into the Salish camp in September 1804 and gave the party food, horses, and other gifts.

For Davis Creek, we’ve recommended Choos-wee Creek to honor the thousands of Chinese immigrants who worked in the mines, ran businesses, and made up a large portion of the population in Montana, especially Beaverhead County, in the late 19th century. “Choos-wee” is the Anglicized phonetic spelling of Čusw̓í, the Salish word for Chinese people. It refers to the single long braid or “queue” that many Chinese people wore at that time.

For Davis Gulch in Helena, we propose In-qu-qu-leet – a rough phonetic rendering of the Salish word that means Place of Lodgepole Pine. This choice recognizes how important this tree is in the lives of the Salish and other Indigenous nations, who use them as tipi poles and for other purposes.

Our effort to rename these three places is getting a boost by legislation that’s currently making its way through Congress. Originally introduced by Sec. Deb Haaland when she was a congresswoman, the bill would establish an Advisory Committee on Reconciliation in Place Names. It would advise the Board on Geographic Names on renaming geographic features with offensive names. Wild Montana has endorsed the legislation.

Present-day and future Montanans and other Americans shouldn’t be subject anymore to the racist judgment practiced by 19th-century white supremacists, nor should they feel excluded from lands that belong to all Americans.

To that end, let the Board on Geographic Names know that we want Davis’ name removed from public lands in Montana.