Impacts of Removal and Reclamation of U.S. Landmark Names

Gabriella Fleischman (PhD Candidate in Public Policy, HKS)

How the United States should manage symbols that for many people represent historical oppression has become a salient and politically divisive public discussion in the past decade. While there are many prominent symbols that have caught the public’s attention, there are 2.2 million geographic landmarks throughout the United States that have an official federal name. Using a simple word search, I can identify over thirteen thousand names from this list containing a slur, pejorative, or other name considered offensive on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender or disability. Additionally, for many people, the landmark names currently populating the U.S. map represent colonization and cultural erasure of Indigenous peoples. I seek to answer two questions: what is the impact of removing these offensive words from landmark names; and if one way of honoring Native American people in the United States – renaming place names to restore Indigenous names – can empower Indigenous people by bringing visibility to Indigenous culture and communities. Using a combination of survey data and administrative data, I will analyze the impact of a policy that removed an offensive place name on attitudes and consumption patterns of people impacted by the name change.