Under a state law passed in 2025, 90 names are up for replacement. Only two have been officially changed so far.
Content warning: The following story contains reporting on place names that currently utilize racial and ethnic slurs through the use of anti-Indigenous, anti-Black, anti-East Asian, anti-Brown, anti-European, anti-Roma, anti-Italian/Spanish/Portuguese and classist offensive language.
For decades, Native people have pushed to remove Oregon’s derogatory place names. Current renaming efforts are moving forward with minimal tribal involvement.
“It’s been decades of work, not just for the state, but for the tribes,” said Brenda Meade, Chairwoman of the Coquille Indian Tribe. “If they are concerned about the tribes not engaging, it’s because it’s so cumbersome of a process.”
Meade continued, “I don’t know if the process is broken or there’s just so many layers of bureaucracy to some of these things, but any time there [are] things that reflect the bad part of our history, it’s something that needs to go away.”
A year after the passage of the state Dignity In Place Act, aimed at replacing derogatory names, few official names have been changed.
Underscore Native News and Oregon Public Broadcasting – August 24, 2026
Yahoo! News – September 4, 2026