The Vancouver school board has taken a thoughtful, well-intentioned step by voting to change the names of two elementary schools in the district. Now the board should take a second step to honor a deserving local woman from recent history.
Board members agreed this week to change the name of Harney Elementary to Edgewood Elementary, and to shorten Peter S. Ogden Elementary to simply Ogden Elementary. In each case, the decision reexamines the history of violence perpetrated by schools’ 19th century namesakes.
Rather than simply shortening the name of the Ogden school, officials should honor Val Ogden, a longtime state representative who was a strong advocate for public education. In particular, that advocacy focused on state schools for the deaf and the blind, both of which are in Vancouver.
When Ogden died at the age of 90 in 2014, Gov. Jay Inslee said at a public memorial, “She just brought an aura of charm and grace — I can’t describe it — every time I was in her presence. There was a beauty to Val I can’t describe.”
That stands in contrast to the history forged by Gen. William S. Harney, who served as commander at Vancouver Barracks, and Peter S. Ogden, who was a prominent Canadian fur trader in Washington and Oregon. Andre Hargunani, Vancouver’s director of equity, told the school board: “Both men have reported and documented acts of violence that they did. Each of them murdered a Native American person. And so there was concern about having our names of our schools reflecting that past and that was brought to our attention.”
As The Columbian reports: “Among other violent acts, Harney massacred a village of 250 Indigenous people after the Mexican War of 1846. Ogden slashed his rivals’ clothes, smashed their fingers and slapped them. In 1816, he murdered a tribal man who insisted on trading with Ogden’s rival company, according to History Link.”
Changing the names of schools in Vancouver adds to national discussions about how we acknowledge and honor the past. In recent years, many monuments to the Confederacy have been removed in Southern states. During the Biden administration, several military bases named for Confederate officers were renamed — a move that President Donald Trump has reversed in some cases.
Critics suggest that removing monuments or changing the names of schools and military bases amounts to an effort to erase history. Instead, the efforts should be considered a clear-eyed view of that history, rather than a myopic one. Obfuscating the full history of men such as Harney and Ogden poorly serves modern residents and underestimates our ability to accurately assess the past.
In 2017, when he was mayor of New Orleans, Mitch Landrieu eloquently addressed the removal of Confederate monuments in his city. “It has been a long and winding road marked by tragedy and triumph, but we cannot be afraid of the truth,” he said. “As President George W. Bush said at the dedication ceremony for the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and I quote, ‘A great nation does not hide its history. It faces its flaws and it corrects them.’”
The board of Vancouver Public Schools has corrected some flaws within the district, weighing the accomplishments against the faults of two men from the long-ago past who had an impact on our region. But in doing so, they have missed an opportunity to acknowledge somebody from the recent past who is worthy of the honor.
