A Colorado mountain tied to an 1864 massacre is renamed Mount Blue Sky

By Thomas Peipert THE ASSOCIATED PRESS DENVER (AP)- Federal officials on Friday renamed a towering mountain southwest of Denver as part of a national effort to address the history of oppression and violence against Native Americans. The U.S. Board on Geographic Names voted overwhelmingly to change Mount Evans to Mount Blue Sky at the request of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes and with the approval of Colorado Gov. Jared Polis. The Arapaho were known as the Blue Sky People, while the Cheyenne hold an annual renewal-of-life ceremony called Blue Sky. The 14,264-foot (4,348-meter) peak was named after John Evans, Colorado’s second territorial governor and ex officio superintendent of Indian affairs. Evans resigned after Col. John Chivington led an 1864 U.S. cavalry massacre of more than 200 Arapaho and Cheyenne people…

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