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Lummis and Barrasso reintroduce bill to maintain the name “Devils Tower” in multi-decade effort

A tall pillar of igneous rock with long parallel cracks rises out from stands of green pine trees and into a blue sky.
Jeff Myers
/
Flickr via CC BY-NC 2.0
This nearly a thousand-foot-tall geologic formation is most commonly referred to as Devils Tower. However, many tribal nations with ties to the site call it by other names and find the current name offensive.

In the first week of Congress’ new session, Wyoming Sens. Cynthia Lummis and John Barrasso have once again joined forces to introduce a bill to maintain the name of the mountain and town connected to Devils Tower National Monument. The bill is one of many that have been introduced since 1996, essentially blocking any name changes from being considered.

The iconic pillar of igneous rock stands nearly a thousand feet tall in Crook County in the northeast corner of the state. The country’s first national monument was established there in 1906, but what’s now called Devils Tower National Monument has long been sacred to Native American tribes in the area, including the Arapahoe, Eastern Shoshone, Cheyenne, Crow, Kiowa and Lakota peoples.

Oral stories and sacred narratives explain the creation of the tower as well as its spiritual and cultural significance to different tribes. Many of those stories center a bear and translated names for the tower reflect that, including “Bear’s Tipi” (Arapahoe), “Bear Lodge” (Cheyenne), “Bear’s House” (Crow), “Tree Rock” (Kiowa) and “Bear Lodge” (Lakota).

The name “Devils Tower” is widely thought to have stemmed from a mistranslation and has been the source of controversy throughout the years.

There’ve been multiple requests to change the name of the National Monument, the town and the mountain itself in the last few decades. In 2014, Lakota spiritual leader Arvol Looking Horse filed a formal request to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to change the names of the geologic feature and the town itself to “Bear Lodge.” That same year, the president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe wrote to the secretary of the interior and others requesting the name "Devils Tower National Monument" be changed to “Bear Lodge.”

Most recently, a subcommittee of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names met in the summer of 2024 and made a recommendation that Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland submit a request to the Biden administration to change the name of the geologic feature and the town.

According to the Devils Tower National Monument page, “The name of the geologic feature and the populated place may be changed by the United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN), the Congress, or the President. The name of the national monument may be changed by an act of Congress or by a Presidential Proclamation.”

However, not all are in favor of a name change. Sen. Ogden Driskill (R-Devils Tower) has been a vocal opponent of the shift over the years. In a 2024 interview with Cowboy State Daily, Driskill said, “To pick one tribe over another tribe for the name, known nationwide and forever as Devils Tower, is disingenuous and wrong. It makes no sense to offend one group to acquiesce to another group.”

Wyoming’s representatives have taken the matter to Congress since 1996, when Rep. Barbara Cubin first introduced a bill to maintain the name of the geologic formation. She introduced the same bill the following two sessions, none of which passed.

“It is my belief and the belief of hundreds of people from around the region that the name change will only bring economic hardship to the tourist industry in the area,” she said in her remarks. “I cannot and will not stand idly by and allow that to happen.”

The state’s representatives in D.C. have followed suit since, with then-Rep. Lummis and Sens. Mike Enzi and Barrasso re-introducing the bill in the House and Senate in 2015. But as long as Congress is actively considering a bill related to a name change, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names won’t consider proposals about the same issue, according to a minority dissent written in response to a similar bill introduced by Rep. Liz Cheney in 2017.

“Usually, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names would embark on a consultation and comment period regarding the name change. However, the mere introduction of H.R 401 derails this process,” the minority report states.

Proposing the bill each session effectively creates a stalemate on the issue and maintains the current name of Devils Tower, regardless of whether or not the bill themselves become law.

Similar legislation to Lummis and Barrasso’s current bill has been consistently introduced since 2015. The bills have never passed.

Hannah Habermann is the rural and tribal reporter for Wyoming Public Radio. She has a degree in Environmental Studies and Non-Fiction Writing from Middlebury College and was the co-creator of the podcast Yonder Lies: Unpacking the Myths of Jackson Hole. Hannah also received the Pattie Layser Greater Yellowstone Creative Writing & Journalism Fellowship from the Wyoming Arts Council in 2021 and has taught backpacking and climbing courses throughout the West.

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