California State Parks is returning the names of features and facilities within Ed Z’berg Sugar Pine Point State Park to their traditional Washoe name, dukMéem wáťa (dook-MEH-em wah-tah), which means “Wave Creek” beginning this summer.
In early 2024, State Parks received a request from the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California to return the traditional Washoe name dukMéem wáťa to the creek that runs through Ed Z’ Berg Sugar Pine Point State Park and to change the names of features and facilities within the park that are attributed to the historic figure General Phipps: General Creek Campground and General Creek Loop Trail. In response, State Parks Director Armando Quintero signed a Director’s Action Request in October 2024, officially changing the names of the facilities to dukMéem wáťa Campground and dukMéem wáťa Loop Trail.
“The return of the traditional Washoe name to this creek honors the history and presence of the Washoe people in the Lake Tahoe Basin,” said State Parks Director Armando Quintero. “This connection reinforces the cultural insight carried through generations and allows State Parks, as co-stewards of these lands, to interpret and share Washoe lifeways with greater respect. It exemplifies the goals of the Reexamining Our Past Initiative — creating a more inclusive and accurate understanding of place.”
Washoe Elders, who were consulted on the name return, discussed how this area has experienced large waves. A story shared by Elders with Tribal Chairman Serrell Smokey is “a Wá∙šiw man with wegeléyu (special powers) had a vision of a tidal wave generating from the north shore of Tahoe going across the lake to the south.
In his vision, there is a large boulder on a ledge a few hundred feet under the water, and there will be an earthquake that will make it fall and cause this to happen.” Archaeological evidence and traditional ecological knowledge held by the tribe suggest that the traditional name commemorates a historical seiche (lake tsunami) wave event that may correlate with the McKinney Bay Landslide that occurred 12,000 to 20,000 years ago.
The memorializing of dukMéɁem wáťa also recognizes Wá∙šiw presence in the Lake Tahoe Basin since time immemorial. The name, dukMéɁem wáťa, is one of many captured in Wá∙šiw legends that have been passed down within the Washoe Tribe over thousands of years. While Wá∙šiw legends often teach morals and cultural teachings, they also depict firsthand accounts of events occurring within their homelands since the beginning of time. The Washoe Tribe has maintained this knowledge despite attempts to eradicate their language, culture, and peoples.
Reexamining Our Past Initiative
This name change is part of the Reexamining Our Past Initiative, wherein State Parks is critically examining contested placenames, identifying and removing residual derogatory placenames, and inappropriate honorifics in California’s State Parks System.
The return of the name will allow State Parks to interpret Washoe lifeways with greater accuracy and to describe traditional place names and their relevancy to the Washoe people and all park visitors today. This returning of the Washoe name to this creek and the associated park facilities is consistent with the Governor’s Truth and Healing Council and the Reexamining Our Past Initiative as well as the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Washoe Tribe and State Parks signed in 2023.
The return of dukMéɁem wáťa as the official place name for the area not only recognizes the history of the Washoe Tribe through the return of the Wá∙šiw language to place but builds upon previously established MOU’s between California State Parks and tribes throughout California that seek the return of Indigenous Peoples and Practices to Land.
While today place names recognize modern history, for many Indigenous Peoples, those places are remembered much differently and have names and stories that honor these places and their histories since the beginning.
Background and History
Previously, these features and facilities were attributed to “General” William Phipps, who arrived in the Lake Tahoe Basin in the 1850s and received a land grant on July 1, 1869, that included a portion of the park. Little is known of Phipps’ life prior to his arrival in California during the Gold Rush, however, archival research indicates he was not a United States General and there is no record of his military service.
A history of the Tahoe area published in 1957 describes Phipps murdering a man called “One-Eyed John” (likely a Washoe ancestor), stealing his beaded footwear and leaving his body to be eaten by wolves. Tribal oral history confirms that Washoe people stayed away from Phipps’ land during his lifetime, even though they visited and worked for his immediate neighbors to the north and south.
The California Advisory Committee on Geographic Names (CACGN) has made a formal request to the U.S. Board of Geographical Names (BGN) to return the name dukMéʔem wáťa to the topographical feature of the creek itself. The request is currently on the agenda of the BGN.
