'Sacred': Cherokee name in, Confederate general out for Tennessee's highest mountain

John Bacon and Tyler Whetstone
USA TODAY
Published: 10:58 a.m. ET Sept. 19, 2024 | Updated: 12:06 p.m. ET Sept. 20, 2024

This story was updated to add new information.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- The highest peak in the sprawling Great Smoky Mountains National Park is dropping the name of a Confederate general in favor of its Cherokee name "Kuwohi."

The U.S. Board of Geographic Names this week approved a formal request by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. The effort was started in 2022 by band members Mary Crowe and Lavita Hill, who called the 6,643-foot peak "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 Cherokee first settled the mountain thousands of years ago, and the name they gave it translates to “the mulberry place.” In 1859, geographer Arnold Guyotthe surveyed the mountain and named it Clingmans Dome after Thomas Clingman, a senator from North Carolina who would soon serve as a general in the Confederacy during the Civil War.

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The National Park Service backed the name change, and park Superintendent Cassius Cash said the agency plans to "work with the Cherokee people to share their story and preserve this landscape together.” ... Park officials close Kuwohi to the public every year for three half-days so Cherokee schools can visit the mountain. The kids learn the history of Kuwohi and the Cherokee people from elders, Cherokee language speakers, culture bearers and community members.

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