Let me point to cultural competency and direct action taken by the federal government, long before the current eruptive climate.

When I first visited Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in the early 90s, the monument carried the name Custer Battlefield National Monument. Because of the inaccuracy of historical bias – dismissive of Native American historical context – this has since been changed and for the better of our shared nation.

This is only one example. When I worked for BLM (Bureau of Land Management before anyone cries “foul!”) there was a concerted effort to rename many sites on federally administered public lands. And all of this was made possible without protests and violence. All affected parties sat at conference tables and made the cultural course correction required of an evolved nation.

This wasn’t exclusive to Native American cultural competancy. I worked on the project to rename the Nigger Head mine, so named for the large ferrocolumbite crystals which were the primary ore mineral. The mine was long abandoned and was scheduled for reclamation at the time of renaming the property. So, renaming the mine had a limited public awareness impact. We still did it.

This was in the early 1990s. And, again, this was accomplished by affected parties sitting at a conference table until our shared reformation goal was satisfied. No violence.