Tuesday,  June 19, 2012 • Vol. 12--No. 341 • 22 of 38 •  Other Editions

(Continued from page 21)

Volunteers provide vet care on SD reservation

• PINE RIDGE, S.D. (AP) -- Volunteers from colleges all over the country are gathering to provide veterinary care to animals on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
• KEVN reports (http://bit.ly/N0mBTL) that the effort is part of a program organized by the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association. The volunteers are made up of veterinarians and students.
• Kate Kusminski says the group will spend five days performing spay and neuter surgeries. They may also conduct leg amputations and eye surgeries.
• The program on Pine Ridge lasts through Friday. In addition to South Dakota, the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association is organizing volunteer visits this

summer to North Dakota and Washington.
•

SD panel works to change offensive place names
CHET BROKAW,Associated Press

• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- For nearly two decades, state Rep. Dean Wink of Howes has been trying to change the name of Negro Creek, which runs through his western South Dakota ranch.
• As of Monday, he has the help of a state board that is charged with getting rid of offensive names.
• The South Dakota Board of Geographic Names decided to use the Meade County creek as a test case for a new process aimed at increasing public involvement in changing offensive names of places, most of which use the terms "Negro" or "squaw."
• Wink said he has tried to refer to the 9-mile-long creek, which eventually drains into the Cheyenne River, as Black Creek, but it hasn't caught on.
• "I think it's a good move to get rid of offensive names," Wink told the board. He said the creek was apparently named Negro Creek because a black family lived there decades ago.
• In 2001, the South Dakota Legislature passed a law to start eliminating offensive names, and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names has since changed the names of 20 places in the state. For example, Squaw Creek in Pennington County has been renamed Cedar Breaks Creek.
• A state law passed in 2009 listed 15 names that hadn't been changed, and cre

(Continued on page 23)

© 2012 Groton Daily Independent • To send correspondence, click here.