US approves Indigenous name change for Colorado mountain

DENVER (AP) — A federal panel has approved naming a Colorado peak after a Cheyenne woman who facilitated relations between white settlers and Native American tribes in the early 1800s. Mestaa’ėhehe Mountain, which is pronounced “mess-taw-HAY,” honors the influential translator. The renaming of what was known as Squaw Mountain west of Denver comes after U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland formally declared “squaw” a derogatory term and said she is taking steps to remove it from federal government use and to replace other derogatory place names. Thursday’s unanimous vote by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Board on Geographic Names also comes as part of national efforts to address a history of colonialism and oppression against Native Americans and other people of color.