Oregon slowly renames offensive place names
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Native people in Oregon have been advocating for decades to remove derogatory names from geographic locations, and current efforts are underway, though with limited tribal involvement.
Brenda Meade, Chairwoman of the Coquille Indian Tribe, explained that the renaming process is slow and complicated, reflecting a history of harm that needs to be addressed.
A year after the passage of the Dignity In Place Act, Oregon’s Geographic Names Board (OGNB) compiled a list of 90 offensive place names, with over half being racial slurs against Black communities and nearly a third targeting Native Americans. The U.S. Board on Geographic Names (BGN) has approved changes for only two places so far, “Jew Valley” became “Jewish Valley” and “Dago Spring” became “Rattlesnake Bluff Spring”, and has ten more proposals under consideration.
The OGNB is attempting to address names rooted in Oregon’s history of forced Indian removal and explicit prohibitions against Black residents. However, some board members suggest maintaining certain names due to familial connections to early homesteaders, sometimes proposing temporary placeholders until more substantial names are suggested. Federal renaming efforts moved more quickly in 2021 when Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland ordered the removal of a slur against Native American women from federal lands, changing over 50 place names in Oregon.
The Department of Interior (DOI) accomplished this by renaming features to match nearby landmarks. While the OGNB has initiated renaming for roughly half of the offensive names in the state, the process is arduous, requiring research, stakeholder input, and approval from the BGN, and can take over a year per proposal.
