The U.S. Board on Geographic Names, a 135-year-old federal body, voted on Thursday to change the names of two entities in Alaska, one with Nazi ties and the other a derogatory term for Japanese people.
The board’s domestic names committee approved changing Nazi Creek, a mile-long stretch on the state’s Aleutian Islands, to a phrase that means “gizzard creek” in the Unangam Tunuu indigenous language.
It also opted to change a nearby Nip Hill, an anti-Japanese reference, to a phrase that means “gizzard hill.” (JNS sought comment from the U.S. Geological Survey, which is part of the Interior Department.)
Michael Livingston, a former police captain and member of the Qawalangin Tribe of Unalaska who led the push to change the names, told SFGate that he became interested in Alaskan maps after “map errors led to slow police response to a violent crime in Anchorage in 2002.”
“Three people were shot, and there was some inaccurate information about the address. It should’ve taken four minutes, maybe eight minutes, for police and emergency medical teams to respond, but instead it took 48 minutes,” he told the publication. “It really motivated me to make sure we get accurate mapping across the board.”
Poring over maps, he found the two derogatory references.
“My dad served with the U.S. Army during World War II, and there were so many losses to the Nazis—particularly for Jewish people, but also the Unangax̂ people,” he told SFGate. “I knew this shouldn’t be there, that something needed to be done.”
He told the publication that he’s also trying to get another name changed—a reference to “a term used to describe Nazi collaborators during the war, or traitors in general.”
