{"id":18650,"date":"2022-08-16T12:33:06","date_gmt":"2022-08-16T17:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/?p=18650"},"modified":"2024-01-26T11:18:29","modified_gmt":"2024-01-26T17:18:29","slug":"mitchell-hamline-student-named-to-interior-department-committee-on-place-names","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/2022\/08\/16\/mitchell-hamline-student-named-to-interior-department-committee-on-place-names\/","title":{"rendered":"Mitchell Hamline student named to Interior Department committee on place names"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mitchell Hamline student Kiana Carlson<\/p><\/div>\n

A Mitchell Hamline student has been named as one of 17 members of a federal advisory group that will help identify and recommend changes to derogatory names used for places throughout the country.<\/p>\n

Kiana Carlson (Ahtna Kohtaene, Taltsiine; Native Village of Cantwell, Alaska) learned she was named to the Department of the Interior\u2019s Advisory Committee on Reconciliation in Place Names<\/a> just a few days before she was to begin her second year in law school.<\/p>\n

“Our nation\u2019s lands and waters should be places to celebrate the outdoors and our shared cultural heritage \u2013 not to perpetuate the legacies of oppression,\u201d said Interior\u00a0Secretary Deb Haaland, in a statement announcing the group. \u201cThe Advisory Committee on Reconciliation in Place Names will accelerate an important process to reconcile derogatory place names.\u201d<\/p>\n

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U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland<\/p><\/div>\n

Carlson was born and raised in Cantwell, Alaska. She enrolled in Mitchell Hamline\u2019s blended-learning program so she could attend law school while living in her village. Her boss at Denali National Park and Preserve encouraged her to apply for the committee. She works seasonally for the cultural resources department, working with the park\u2019s museum, archeology, and history staff on various projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to be a part of the committee because I wanted to help share and hopefully correct the history of the place names that surround us day to day,\u201d said Carlson. \u201cMany people – including me at times – are unaware that the names of places and things are derogatory or racist.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many examples of places that have blatantly offensive names, like \u2018sq***\u2019 or \u2018savage.\u2019 But many other names aren\u2019t as obvious but equally derogatory or racist in nature that need to be spotlighted and hopefully changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the flexible enrollment options, Carlson says she chose Mitchell Hamline because of the outreach from the law school\u2019s Native American Law and Sovereignty Institute. \u201cBefore I was even a Mitchell Hamline student, I felt I was already a part of the Mitchell Hamline community and truly felt I was going to be supported,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

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Professor Angelique EagleWoman<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cKiana is one of our Alaska Native law students deeply connected to her home community and attending law school in our online blended-learning program,\u201d said Professor Angelique EagleWoman, director of the Native American Law and Sovereignty Institute. \u201cThrough her love of her homelands, culture and history, Kiana\u2019s voice will bring forward positive change uplifting Native peoples and lands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Members of the committee will meet two to four times a year to \u201cidentify geographic names and federal land unit names that are considered derogatory and solicit proposals on replacement names,\u201d according to the Department of the Interior. The effort is an extension of one started by Haaland \u2013 the first Native American to serve as secretary of the department \u2013 that focused specifically on the use of the term \u201csq***\u201d in federal place names. The word has been used as a racial and sexist slur against Indigenous women for centuries, particularly by white settlers.<\/p>\n

That process found more than 660 uses of \u201csq***\u201d on features like rivers, lakes, and creeks. A separate task force<\/a> created to study just that one racist term is forwarding recommended replacement names, which are expected to get a final vote in September from the U.S. Board of Geographic Names.<\/p>\n

The committee that includes Carlson will now extend that work by studying and recommending name changes regarding additional derogatory terms.<\/p>\n

Learn more about Mitchell Hamline’s Native American Law and Sovereignty Institute<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mitchell Hamline welcomes record number of Native students (2021)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Mitchell Hamline student has been named as one of 17 members of a federal advisory group that will help identify and recommend changes to derogatory names used for places throughout the country. Kiana Carlson (Ahtna Kohtaene, Taltsiine; Native Village of Cantwell, Alaska) learned she was named to the Department of the Interior\u2019s Advisory Committee … <\/p>\n

Mitchell Hamline student named to Interior Department committee on place names<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4872,"featured_media":18653,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,77],"tags":[81,482,480,481,65,685],"class_list":{"0":"post-18650","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-features","8":"category-news","9":"category-office-of-diversity-equity-and-inclusion","10":"tag-angelique-eaglewoman","11":"tag-department-of-interior","12":"tag-kiana-carlson","13":"tag-place-names","14":"tag-racism","15":"tag-student-experience","16":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4872"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}