The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to support a proposal to rename the Patrick’s Point headland as Sue-meg Point, following in line with the State Parks and Recreation Commission’s decision last year.
The item brought forward by Fifth Supervisor Steve Madrone supports a request that California State Parks submitted to the U.S. Board of Geographic Names to rename the headland.
The headland is located inside of Sue-meg State Park, which was restored to the name used by Yurok people for the land since time immemorial after decades of being labeled after a notorious settler who’d claimed the Yurok ancestral lands and was accused of murdering numerous Native people, including a young Yurok boy.
The change in name was the first for a State Park under California’s “Reexamining Our Past Initiative,” which was launched by the state the previous year to address what California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot described as “historic names that stem from a dark legacy that includes discrimination, violence and inequity.”
This article appears in 44 Feet.
