South Dakota Board on Geographic Names

State Department of Tribal Relations

302 East Dakota

Pierre,SD 57501

Phone:  605-773-3415

Website:  http://www.sdbgn.sd.gov/

For Immediate Release:   Friday, April 12, 2013

Contact:  Secretary JR LaPlante, Chair, SD Board on Geographic Names – 605-773-3415

Board On Geographic Names Seeks Input On Proposed Names For Features In Custer, Lawrence and Pennington Counties

PIERRE, S.D. – The South Dakota Board on Geographic Names (SDBGN) seeks public input on new names for Negro Wool Ridge and Negro Canyon near Wind Cave in Custer County; Negro Hill and Negro Gulch near Tinton in Lawrence County; and Negro Creek near Medicine Mountain in Pennington County.

The names are considered offensive and require that new names be solicited under guidelines by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. 

The guidelines state that preferred names be descriptive of topographic forms suggested by local history, folklore, or incident, or by associated natural life or other phenomena, including American Indian or other ethnic names appropriate to the area.  A proposed name should not duplicate another name in the state or nearby in an adjoining state.  If a personal name is proposed, it must be determined in the public interest to honor the person or family for historical or commemorative reasons, and that person must have been deceased at least five years. 

The process is intended to eliminate offensive names.  No name should imply discrimination or be derogatory to gender or a particular racial, ethnic or religious group, and proposed names should not be considered obscene in a present-day cultural context.

Comments should be submitted no later than June 1, 2013.  A comment form is available upon request or available on the SDBGN website:  http://www.sdbgn.sd.gov/

Please send comments and recommendations to:

South Dakota Board on Geographic Names                   Phone: 605-773-3415

South Dakota Department of Tribal Relations                FAX: 605-773-6592

302 East Dakota                                                           Email: carol.postulka@state.sd.us

Pierre, SD 57501

For more information, contact JR LaPlante at 605-773-3415

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