Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s highest peak reverts to Native American name Kuwohi
America’s most visited national park is undergoing a name change.
The highest peak at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, on the Tennessee-North Carolina border, is officially reverting to its Cherokee name – more than 150 years after a surveyor named it for a Confederate general.
The U.S. Board of Geographic Names voted in favor of a request from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians to change the name Clingmans Dome to Kuwohi, according to a news release from the park.
The peak became known as Clingmans Dome following an 1859 survey by geographer Arnold Guyot – who named it for Thomas Lanier Clingman – a Confederate Brigadier General as well as a lawyer, U.S. Representative and Senator from North Carolina.
Kuwohi is one the famed-national park’s most popular sites with more than 650,000 visitors per year.
Translating to ‘mulberry place,’ Kuwohi is a sacred place for the Cherokee people and is home to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. The 6,644 foot peak is visible from the Qualla Boundary and the highest point within the traditional Cherokee homeland.
‘The Cherokee People have had strong connections to Kuwohi and the surrounding area, long before the land became a national park,’ Superintendent Cassius Cash said in the release.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park closes Kuwohi every year for three half-days so Cherokee schools can visit the mountain and learn its history.
‘The National Park Service looks forward to continuing to work with the Cherokee People to share their story and preserve this landscape together, Cash added.
The name-restoration proposal was submitted in January by Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Principal Chief Michell Hicks and was approved on Wednesday.
Leave a Reply