Senators aim to protect Devils Tower name

A bill recently introduced in Congress would cement the name of Devils Tower National Monument in perpetuity. Senator Cynthia Lummis, who penned the bill with co-sponsorship from Senator John Barrasso, says her aim is to protect the monument from efforts to change its name.

“Devils Tower is one of the most iconic sights In Wyoming. It’s the first national monument in the United States, and a place of significance for everyone who sees it, from the tourists who visit to the native peoples and Wyoming residents who live nearby,” Lummis states in a press release announcing the bill.

“Devils Tower is well known across the country and around the world as a historical and cultural landmark, and it is critical that we maintain its legacy and its name.”

Senate Bill 22 was introduced on January 22 and has now been read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. It states simply that the mountain at the monument “shall be known and designated as ‘Devils Tower’,” and that this will include any reference to the Tower in law, map, regulation, order, document, paper or other record.

This is not the first time Lummis and Barrasso have pursued legislation to protect the name of the monument. Along with then-U.S. Senator Mike Enzi, they introduced legislation to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2015 that would preserve the name in statute.

The legislation was in response to a petition that was submitted to the State and U.S. Board on Geographic Names by Chief Arvol Looking Horse, spiritual leader of the Great Sioux Nation, that requested Devils Tower be renamed to “Bear Lodge” on the basis that the current name is offensive and a mistranslation.

This petition came to the attention of the Crook County Petition, which in March, 2015 opened the question to the public and received almost 1000 comments, the vast majority supporting the name “Devils Tower.”

Lummis refers to this and other attempts to make changes to the monument’s name in her press release about the companion legislation she has now introduced in the U.S. Senate, citing the fact that “efforts have been made in recent years to change the name of the well-known landmark,” which has been referred to as Devils Tower since the 1800s and was proclaimed the first national monument in 1906.

According to Lummis, petitioners have been asking the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to rename the Tower since 2005 but the bureaucratic board has been unable to do so. She points to the Devils Tower protection bill as the reason for this.

“Since the bill is under consideration by Congress, the board cannot make its own decision on the issue,” says the press release. “As a result, whether the bill becomes law or not, the name cannot be changed.”