PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, Md. — (Editor's Note: the video above is from March 23, 2022)
A bill that supporters have spent years campaigning for will finally take effect this year.
Indian Head Highway will be officially renamed to Piscataway Highway beginning in October 2022. The bill passed the Maryland House and the Senate on April 11.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan signed the bill in a ceremony on Tuesday.
The highway in Prince George's County ignited a battle that began in 2015, which stemmed from the argument that the name is offensive. An initial Change.org petition for the cause has already received thousands of signatures.
"We are elated with the movement of this bill, but saddened that we have had to do so much to change a name on our own ancestral lands," said Jesse James Swann, Chief of the Piscataway Conoy Tribe, when the bill was still working to gain steam.
The tribe was recognized by the State of Maryland in 2013.
The Piscataway people were encountered by English Captian John Smith during his first exploration of the Chesapeake Bay nearly 420 years ago, according to historians.
Southern Maryland Legislator Jay Walker testified during a virtual hearing on the bill on March 11.
“The term Indian Head was used at a time when it was legal to kill native Americans, take their body parts and sell them,” Walker said.
"For centuries the Native American community has been the victim of discrimination from the general public," the initial petition still reads. "We, the members of the Piscataway Conoy Tribe, whose ancestral lands include both this highway and town are asking for both to be changed. Both are discriminatory to Native Americans in general, and we will no longer tolerate it."
The bill is set to go into effect on Oct. 1.
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