The name of Confederate President Jefferson Davis could be losing a place of honor in California's Sierra Nevada.
The U.S. Board on Geographic Names could vote as soon as next month to replace the disgraced leader's name on a peak in Alpine County south of Lake Tahoe.
The change has been in the works for years and is nearing culmination as people across the U.S. continue to scrutinize the Confederacy's legacy of white supremacy and slavery.
In recent weeks the U.S. Marine Corps and NASCAR have announced bans on Confederate flags and iconography.
But the effort to strip the Davis name goes back years.
Updated: Jeff Davis Peak could be renamed to Doso Doyabi, awaits federal approval
In 2017 Anthony Oertel of San Rafael, Calif., began the process when he pitched the idea of naming the peak after Frederick Bee, a 19th century California entrepreneur who fought for the rights of Chinese immigrants.
Oertel is interested in Bee's legacy and, with Confederate monuments falling out of favor, thought the Bee name would be more appropriate than that of Davis.
However, as the process moved forward, officials in Alpine County and with the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California said they would prefer an indigenous name.
Oertel agreed and local officials and the tribe suggested using the Washoe phrase "Dā-Ek Dow Go-Et," which translates to "saddle between points."
In 2018, the California Advisory Committee on Geographic Names voted against a name change. But last year they agreed to revisit the matter.
One of the committee's concerns was the formation at the summit was called Sentinel Rock in an 1883 survey.
Eventually, the committee decided on a compromise that would use Dā-Ek Dow Go-Et Mountain for the entire mountain and Sentinel Rock for the rock formation at the top, according to Jennifer Runyon, a researcher for the U.S. Board on Geographic Names.
Irvin Jim Jr., chairman of the tribe's Hung Lel Ti Community Council in Woodfords, said the change is important because it restores a name that's connected to the Washoe people who have been in the region more than 10,000 years.
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"We had a name for it prior to contact," Jim said. "Everybody came here and they never gave us any kind of consideration."
The Alpine County Board of Supervisors supports the proposal to restore the Washoe-language name to the landscape.
"We are supporting their naming recommendation, they are our partners," said Nichole Williamson, Alpine County's administrative officer. "The Washoe tribe is a significant portion of the Alpine County population."
Williamson said the Board of Supervisors is expected to vote on a second letter of support for the name in early July.
The U.S. board could vote on the change as soon as its July 11 meeting, Runyon said.
Nevada's Jeff Davis peak renamed
The effort to strip the Davis name from the peak in Alpine County follows a similar effort in Nevada.
The U.S. board last year authorized a request to replace the Davis name on a peak in Great Basin National Park with the name Doso Doyabi, a Shoshone phrase for "white peak."
According to the Great Basin National Park website, the naming saga dates to 1855 when Davis was secretary of war under President Franklin Pierce.
Under Davis, the Army Corps of Topographical Engineers was charged with exploring much of the West with an eye toward identifying routes for the Transcontinental Railroad.
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In 1861, Davis resigned from the Senate, where he represented Mississippi. Within weeks, he won the presidency of the newly seceded Confederate States in large part because he represented the planter class which relied on slave labor to prop up their livelihoods and notions of white supremacy.
Credit, or blame, for assigning Davis' name in what is now Nevada goes to Col. Edward Steptoe, who was leading an expedition through the region.
As Davis shifted his loyalty from the Union to Confederate cause, subsequent explorers appeared to regret his name on the peak.
In 1869, an expedition passed through the area led by George Montague Wheeler.
Wheeler and five others summited the peak and renamed it Wheeler, which stuck.
Doso Doyabi is connected by a ridge to Wheeler Peak which, at 13,064 feet, is the tallest mountain in Nevada. Davis' name remained on the smaller peak until last year.
(Although Boundary Peak in Esmeralda County is slightly higher than Wheeler, it is considered a subsidiary summit to Montgomery Peak, which is in California.)
Christine Johnson, executive secretary of the Nevada State Board on Geographic Names, said the change was worth the effort that went into making it.
Johnson said the modern naming process is more inclusive than it was in the early days of settlement. That, she said, gives indigenous people and others a chance to have a voice in how people view and talk about the landscape.
"We have to tell these stories," Johnson said. "The process is important because it allows for inclusion where perhaps there wasn't inclusion in the past."
Benjamin Spillman covers the outdoors and environment in Northern Nevada, from backcountry skiing in the Sierra to the latest from Lake Tahoe's ecosystem. Support his work by subscribing to RGJ.com right here.
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