SAN JUAN ISLANDS, Wash. – A channel in the San Juan Islands will likely get a new name thanks to the work of a former Whatcom County resident.
Ken Carrasco, who now lives on Orcas Island, proposed the change after reading up on General William Harney, namesake of Harney Channel between Orcas and Shaw Islands.
Carrasco says Harney led a massacre of Sioux people in Nebraska in 1855.
“He killed nearly 100 Sioux and then afterwards he had troops burn their belongings in the village. Then he forced the survivors to march 140 miles, which is equivalent to downtown Seattle to Vancouver B.C, barefoot and injured,” said Carrasco. “I was pretty shocked about that.”
Harney had also killed an enslaved woman in 1834, for which he was run out of the state of Missouri.
Harney was in the San Juan Islands in the 1860’s and escalated tensions with British forces during the Pig War by ordering U.S. troops to San Juan Island.
Carrasco says he’s proposed a more suitable namesake for the channel, Henry Cayou.
“He was born on Orcas Island in 1869 and lived here in the San Juan Islands until his death at the age of 90 in 1959,” said Carrasco. “He was half Native American.”
Cayou was active in the community and Carrasco says he was a bridge between native and white cultures.
The state Board on Geographical Names is considering the change and, if approved, will send it to a federal board.
To listen to the full interview with Ken Carrasco, go to our Podcast page.