DEAD INDIAN LAKE HAS BEEN RENAMED…AGAIN

            Cheyenne (AP) – A lake located near a Cheyenne Indian burial site has received a new name over concerns that the old name may be offensive.

            Dead Indian Lake in Roger Mills County is now officially known as Dead Warrior Lake, ending a controversy that has been going on for almost a decade. The final decision came in June, when the U.S. Board on Geographic Names voted to change the name, which it considered offensive to American Indians.

            But folks who live near the 80-acre lake have taken little notice. “Too many of us are fourth or fifth generation here and our grandfathers homesteaded this area. We always knew it as Dead Indian Lake,” Leona Keahey said.

            That has been the lake’s name since a dam was built on Dead Indian Creek in the 1950s to create the lake.

            The first settlers in the area came up with the name after discovering a Cheyenne burial site. Cottonwoods that lined the creek made for a perfect burial site near the tribe’s winter camp.

            A Norman woman challenged the name in 1997, complaining the name was too similar to a notorious saying attributed to Maj. Gen Phillip H. Sheridan that “the only good Indian is a dead Indian.”

           The Oklahoma Board on Geographic names took up the issue and spent eight years trying to reach a decision on whether to change a name that had local historical value or keep it at the risk of being offensive, said Wayne Furr, the board’s secretary.

            After nine years, the federal board stepped in, changing the name to Dead Warrior Creek and Dead Warrior Lake. At the lake, virtually nothing has changed as a result of the decision, said Tom Smeltzer, a district ranger at the Black Kettle National Grasslands. Locals who wanted to preserve the lake’s name put up two 8-foot signs on private property near entrances to the lake that bore the original name, but those are now gone, Smeltzer said.

            On park maps the lake has no name. The road signs pointing to the lake only mention the adjoining Black Kettle Recreation Area.                Those changes came about when the conflict first arose and park officials were unsure of the lake’s fate. Smeltzer said he doesn’t plan to change maps or signs any time soon, citing continuing local confusion.

            “Even in our office, we still call it Dead Indian Lake,” Smeltzer said. “Maybe in another 50 years or so people will be using the new name but probably not any time soon.”