The summit that was once named for a military commander

Countries & Cities · Published 30 September 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: For decades, South Dakota's highest natural point bore the name of a US General. But behind this geographic label lay a painful history of conflict, leading to a unanimous 2016 decision to honor a Lakota medicine man instead.

Black Elk Peak, standing at 7,244 feet, is the highest point in the Black Hills and South Dakota. While some geographers debate if it is the highest summit east of the Rockies due to its relationship with the Rocky Mountain Front, it remains a landmark of immense cultural and historical weight. For much of its recent history, it was known as Harney Peak, named in 1855 by Lieutenant Gouverneur K. Warren to honor General William S. Harney.

The name change was a decades-long pursuit for the Lakota people. General Harney’s forces were responsible for the Battle of Blue Water Creek in September 1855, where they killed Sicangu warriors, women, and children. Because of this massacre, the Lakota sought to strip the General's name from the landscape. The movement gained renewed momentum in 2014, led by Korean War veteran Basil Brave Heart, eventually resulting in a unanimous 12–0 vote by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names on August 11, 2016, to rename the peak after the Lakota medicine man, Black Elk.

Black Elk, also known as a 'Servant of God,' is remembered for his 'Great Vision' received at age nine and his later life as a shaman. His experiences were famously documented in the 1932 book 'Black Elk Speaks' by John G. Neihardt. Today, the peak is part of the Black Elk Wilderness, a site that holds deep sacred significance for the Lakota, who historically called the region Pahá Sápa and the peak Hiŋháŋ Káǧa, or 'owl-maker.'

The summit is also a site of architectural and economic history. It features a stone fire tower built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1938 and a 1935 concrete dam. The area's mining history includes a notable 1880s fraud involving the Harney Peak Tin Company, which lost investors nearly $3 million.

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