Titled “Words Are Monuments”, a new a new scientific study presents findings from a quantitative analysis of National Park place-names. Results show that derogatory place-names are only the tip of the iceberg.
Read Post
In the United States, federal lands are stolen lands. When the first European settlers arrived on the shores of North America, moving westward to the Pacific Ocean, there were, by some estimates, upwards of 112 million Indigenous people already living on the continent. Organized into their own rich and diverse societies, Indigenous Nations, bands, and … Read more
Read Post
A national reckoning with American history and racial injustice has been playing out across various sites, from monuments to museums, school curricula, and increasingly, maps. Within this context, a team of conservation research scientists has performed a quantitative analysis of 2,200 National Park place names, asking how place names in US National Parks function to … Read more
Read Post
Place-names locate us in place, but also in relation to other places, not just across the country, but around the world. Place-names also locate us in time. Indigenous-led renaming campaigns remind us that there are other naming traditions that refer to times before and after colonial rule. They dislodge the sense of inevitability and permanence … Read more
Read Post