28 Colorado landmarks officially have new names, thanks to the Interior Department

More than two dozen geographic locations in Colorado officially have new names, along with almost 650 sites across the country.

The list of name changes was announced Thursday almost a year after Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland first ordered the Board on Geographic Names to remove derogatory and offensive terms from landmarks.

“I feel a deep obligation to use my platform to ensure that our public lands and waters are accessible and welcoming,” said Haaland, the first Native American cabinet secretary and a member of the Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico. “That starts with removing racist and derogatory names that have graced federal locations for far too long.”

All 28 landmarks in Colorado with new names previously included a racist term referring to Native American women, identified by the Interior Department as the word “sq___.” Manuel Heart is chairman of the Ute Mountain Ute tribe, one of two tribal nations within the modern borders of Colorado.

“We’ve had this name for a long time that really doesn’t make us feel comfortable as Native Americans,” said Heart. “This is something that was named in a way, just like the African Americans had a name: the N-word.”

One location about 30 miles west of Denver that previously included the term is now called Mestaa’ėhehe Pass. The new name honors Owl Woman, who was an important translator and mediator between Native Americans and white settlers in the early 1800s.

“If we can treat each other with respect, then we understand each other a lot better,” said Peter Ortego, general counsel for the Ute Mountain Ute tribe. “I think that this is a matter of paying respect to the tribes.”

The renamed landmarks are scattered across 17 Colorado counties, including several on ancestral tribal land. They include streams, lakes, valleys and peaks among other geographical places, and their names vary from Indigenous names to simple English ones like Evening Star Mountain in Teller County.

The complete list of new names and a map of the locations is available on the U.S. Geological survey website.

Here is the list of the 28 places renamed in Colorado and the county each is located.

Here is a map of the renamed places.