Utah's 'Negro Bill Canyon' renamed after years of debate [now Grandstaff Canyon]

Associated Press ^ | Oct 12, 2017 6:51 PM EDT

[Olog-hai]

After years of debate, a U.S. government board has voted to rename Utah’s Negro Bill Canyon, overruling a recommendation by Utah officials to keep the name.

The U.S. Board on Geographic Names decided Thursday to rename it Grandstaff Canyon to get rid of an offensive name, The Salt Lake Tribune reports. The vote was 12-0, with one member declining to vote. The decision comes 16 years after the board voted to keep the name.

The new name honors black rancher and prospector William Grandstaff, whose cattle grazed there in the 1870s. “His name was Grandstaff; it was not Negro Bill,” said Wendi-Starr Brown, a member of the federal board who is Native American. “I’m pretty sure that’s not how he wanted to be addressed in life.” Brown is a member of the Narragansett Indian Tribe, who represents the Bureau of Indian Affairs on the federal board. […]

The NAACP said the name is not offensive and preserves the history of the site, while the Utah Martin Luther King Jr. Commission called the name “blatant racism.”

The canyon is home to a popular hiking spot in Moab, the gateway to stunning, massive red rock formations. Local officials and business owners have long said the name generates frequent complaints and outcry from tourists who come from around the world, lured by the red-rock landscapes in nearby national parks. …

[hawg-farmer - FR..October 1998]

Negro superseded colored as the most polite word for African Americans at a time when black was considered more offensive....n particular, this update concerns the definitions of racial/ethnic categories.

Ethnicity: Hispanic or Latino origin.
White Americans.
Black and African Americans. African-American is a Race... so it did not exist before 1776? he he

[Jamestown1630]

:-)