The Metro Board of Parks and Recreation on Tuesday voted unanimously to approve an official name change for Cumberland Park in downtown Nashville. Going forward, the space — which opened in 2012 — will be known as Wasioto Park.
“Wasioto” is a Shawnee word that, according to some sources, means “mountains where the deer are plentiful.” It’s also the name the Shawnee people gave to the Cumberland River many generations before white people arrived in what is now known as Tennessee. Since August, Nashville’s Indigenous People’s Coalition and its chair Albert Bender have been advocating for the name change.
The Indigenous Peoples Coalition chair is at the forefront of the movement to give the park its ancient Shawnee name
At Tuesday’s meeting, commissioner Susannah Scott-Barnes noted that the body received a total of 236 responses to the proposed name change — 208 respondents were in favor, while 28 were opposed.
The park is on the East Bank of the Cumberland River, which is set to undergo a great deal of development in the coming years in conjunction with the construction of a new Tennessee Titans stadium. Parks commissioner Edward Henley III noted on Tuesday that the “footprint of the park will be impacted” due to construction and infrastructure changes.
“When we talk about Nashville, Indigenous communities must be part of the conversation,” says Loraine Segovia Paz, executive director of the Nashville Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Foundation and another central figure in the push to rename the park. “Their voices deserve to be heard, and their history and heritage must be recognized — after all, they were here long before any of us. … The renaming of the park is a significant step toward acknowledging the history, heritage, and contributions of the Indigenous communities who once thrived in Nashville, as well as those who continue to enrich Nashville and Tennessee today.”
As noted at Tuesday's meeting, Metro Parks policy dictates that "the cost associated with the renaming of a park shall be borne by the requesting organization."
