Congressman Al Green Thanks Secretary Haaland for Her Vital Efforts to Remove Derogatory Names from Geographic Sites in the U.S.
(Houston, TX) – On Tuesday, November 23, 2021, Congressman Al Green (TX-09) released the following statement:
“Four months ago, Senator Elizabeth Warren and I introduced H.R. 4454 – Reconciliation of Place Names Act to address the hundreds of derogatory names still used to identify geographic sites, monuments, and various other structures built into the natural landscape. Last Friday, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, who originally introduced this bill in the 116th Congress, issued a Secretarial Order to implement a federal advisory committee––a key part of H.R. 4454. This federal advisory committee will be comprised of tribal citizens, organizations, as well as persons with a background in civil rights and race relations. The committee will make recommendations to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names and to Congress on geographic features to be renamed. I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to Secretary Haaland for her outstanding leadership on the long-overdue process of removing racist and derogatory names from federally named lands.”
The Department of the Interior is the federal agency with jurisdiction over national parks, natural resources, federal lands, and the U.S. Board of Geographic Names, which oversees all naming processes and decisions. On Saturday, November 20, 2021, the Department’s head Secretary Haaland visited Alcatraz Island to announce recent strides made regarding tribal communities, including Secretarial Order 3405. Her visit coincided with the 52nd anniversary of the Island’s occupation by Native Americans and Native American activists.