General Otis Howard should not be memorialized in Wallowa County, the sacred homeland of Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce Indians.  He was instrumental in causing the 1877 war that forced the Nez Perce to try to flee to sanctuary in Canada.  He spearheaded attempts to rush them onto a small reservation without any notice.  Chief Joseph said, “If General Howard had given me plenty of time to gather up my stock and treated Too-hook-goo suit as a man should’ve been treated, there would’ve been no war.” Many many Native Americans, all ages, endured extreme cold, hunger, died terrible deaths and suffered greatly after being placed on reservations.  Their riches in horse, cattle and gold were stolen from them.  Howard was thwarted in his attempts to be successful with the Freedmen’s bureau after the civil, the reason he left DC, and relocated to a post in the NW to deal with the Indian Problem. He fought the Apaches in 1872, the Nez Perce in 1877, the Bannack Paiutes in 1978, and the Sheepeaters in 1879.  So, though he was an evangelical who attempted to help the freed black men, got a university named after him for his efforts, he sullied his record by being a murderous racist against multiple Indian tribes who suffer to this day due to his efforts.  Mt Howard, in Joseph, OR, should be renamed to honor the tribes whose sacred land and livelihood was stolen from them, not for the man who was one of the main perpetrators.  Now is the time to make the mountain sacred by removing his sacrilegious name.  Thank you! #indigenouslivesmatter #indigenousrights #chiefjoseph #josephoregon #nezperceindians #oregon #wallowacounty #wallowamountains #peterdefazio #jeffmerkeley #governorbrown