Out with the old, in with the new as they say. Great Smoky Mountains National Park announced that it's making a major name change to its tallest peak. Clingmans Dome will now be called Kuwohi.
The Smoky Mountains announced it's dropping the moniker of a Confederate general for a Cherokee name instead. The U.S. Board of Geographic Names approved a formal request. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians have been trying to get the name changed since 2022. Members Mary Crowe and Lavita Hill call the mountain "spiritual and sacred."
"Kuwohi is significant to our people," Hill told the USA TODAY Network. "This is where our medicine man came, this is where our healers and spirtual leaders came to pray and to get guidance from the creator."
The mountain has been important to the Cherokee people for thousands of years. However, it got it's modern name in 1859. Geographer Arnold Guyotthe surveyed the mountain and named it Clingmans Dome. He named it after Thomas Clingman, a North Carolina senator. Clingman later became a general for the Confederacy during the Civil War.
Smoky Mountains Name Change
But for the Cherokee people, the Smoky Mountains peak has always been Kuwohi."This significant moment honors our ancestors and strengthens our connection to this sacred land," Cherokee Chief Michell Hicks said in a written statement.
According to Crowe, the Clingman family supported the name change. "The trails you are walking are trails created by my people," Crowe told WBIR-TV. "We were blessed to get the support from the Clingman family."
Additionally, park Superintendent Cassius Cash said the National Park Service will "work with the Cherokee people to share their story and preserve this landscape together."
As part of the Cherokee's history with the mountain, it's closed for three half days every year so Cherokee schools can visit and learn its history. The park has begun changing the signage in Smoky Mountains Park.
"The Great Smoky National Park team was proud to support this effort to officially restore the mountain and to recognize its importance to the Cherokee People," Cash said. "The Cherokee People have had strong connections to Kuwohi and the surrounding area, long before the land became a national park."
The mountain carries an important but sad history for the Cherokee people. It's also where some hid from U.S. soldiers during the Trail of Tears in the 1830s. That event saw the Cherokee forced from their homes into the new Indian Territory of Oklahoma.
