Words are monuments data-only archive

These are the data that go with the paper "Words are monuments: Patterns in US national park place names perpetuate settler colonial mythologies including white supremacy" (available 6 April 2022) by the above authors. Our code (and these data) are available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5712009. This archive is here for folks who just want the data. This is the full dataset with name explanations and references for the explanations, traditional Indigenous place names for settler colonial place names (where available), additional categories for sorting, and more. 

Note: .csv files can be opened in Excel and Google Sheets.

column info:

A: Unique ID per row

B: National Park place name is in

C: Place name according to NPS visitor map

D: Feature type (mountain, island, picnic area, etc.)

E: Name type (person, non-human animal, plant, etc.)

F: Natural or human constructed (human constructed includes so-called "ruins", as well as visitor centers, etc.)

G: Is the word from an Indigenous or western language?

H: Is it a traditional Indigenous place name?

I: If it is Indigenous is it the name of an Indigenous person or people?

J: Is it a translation of a traditional Indigenous PN?

K: Word meaning class (similar to column E)

L: Erasure -- see paper for definitions of each class below and decision trees

• Yes
• potentially
• no information
• not erasure - evidence it is a traditional Indigenous PN or settler built with western PN
• translation of traditional IPN)

M: Dimensions of racism and colonialism -- see paper for definitions of each class below and decision trees

• No (traditional Indigenous PN, western built with western PN, or erasure as only problem)
• Name itself promotes racist ideas and/or violence against a group
• Named after person who supported racist ideas (but not physically violent)
• Named for a person who directly or use their power to indirectly perpetrate violence against a racial group
• Western use of Indigenous name (Appropriation)
• Other - truly does not fit any other classes
• No info - cannot find explanation
• Colonialism - memorializes colonialism
• Relevant western use of Indigenous name (i.e., appropriation of traditional name)

N: Derogatory

• Yes
• Potentially
• No info

O: explanation of name found in research

P: Link to resources explaining name (for full citation for books cited, e.g., "name year" entries, see Table S1 in the paper).

Q: Link to resources explaining name (if second link or source available)

R: Indigenous name found in research

v1.0.0 did not include columns O-R by mistake; corrected in this version update.