By Mike Sunnucks | Rose Law Group Reporter
The city of Phoenix is being asked to change the names of Indian School Road, Steele Indian School Park and Robert E. Lee Street.
The Phoenix City Council’s Land Use and Livability Committee will hear about the name change push during a meeting today.
The name change proposals stems from a citizen petition led by Susan Steinberg.
The city is already in the midst of looking to change the name of Robert E. Lee Street. A number of cities have changed street names and taken down memorials and monuments to Confederate generals and soldiers as well as some commemorating Christopher Columbus.
The push behind changing the name of Indian School Road and the park stems from how Native American children were treated at the Phoenix Indian School.
“The Phoenix Indian School opened in 1891 as the only Bureau of Indian Affairs-run school in Arizona. The Phoenix Indian School and others like it throughout the country originally were operated as boarding schools for Native American children to force assimilation to Anglo-American Christian culture,” reads the council subcommittee’s summary of the issue.
The names of the street and park could be changed to honor Native American figures including Navajo Code Talkers who served during World War II.
