INDIAN HEAD, Md. — Maryland's Piscataway Conoy Tribe, alongside other community members in support of the cause, is working hard to secure a name change for the city of Indian Head, as well as the eponymous highway in Prince George's County.
The battle that began in 2015 stems from the argument that the names are offensive and a Change.org petition for the cause has already received more than 3,800 signatures.
"For centuries the Native American community has been the victim of discrimination from the general public," the petition reads. "We, the members of the Piscataway Conoy Tribe, whose ancestral lands include both this highway and town are asking for both to be changed. Both are discriminatory to Native Americans in general, and we will no longer tolerate it."
On Monday, Piscataway Conoy Tribe Chief Jesse James Swann, Jr. recirculated a 2021 email sent to Maryland leaders, asking that the highway name be changed to Piscataway Highway or Pascattoway Highway.
"This is our ancestral land and this highway was a major thoroughfare used by Piscataway and the surrounding tribes that were under our empire-the Mattowoman, Nanjemoy, Natchotank (Anacostans), Potobac, Patuxent, etc," Swann wrote. "We are the original inhabitants of this land -we were very accepting and very giving to those who formed what is now present day Maryland."
Swann is seeking a meeting with state leadership to "personally deliver the thousands of signatures that we have" in support of a name change.
In 2021, a pair of Maryland senators introduced legislation that would change the name of the highway to President Barack Obama Highway.
Senate Bill 213, spearheaded by Obie Patterson of Prince George's County and Arthur Ellis of Charles County, was first introduced in January of 2021. However, the bill died in the Maryland senate after its first reading a month later.
Documents estimate it would cost about $12,500 to make new signs for the highway, but an official renaming would cost more than that.
"There is no other race that has had to prove who they are except Native Americans nor any other race that includes something with their body part in the name of the street, road or highway," the Chane.org petition says. "Whether or not you believe that our sisters and brothers' heads were decapitated and placed on posts along the side of the road, the name is discriminatory at best and a demonstration of the slaughter of our people at worst."
It wouldn't be the first time a highway in our region has been renamed. The name of U.S. Route 1 in Virginia, formerly named for Confederate President Jefferson Davis, was recently changed to Richmond Highway.