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BISMARCK 鈥� Two women representing themselves and others in the community who have a negative view of Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer want the Bismarck Park District to rename a park that carries his name.

Custer was a military officer who served during the Civil War and fought against Native Americans on the Great Plains in the 1860s and 1870s before leading his men to death at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, his most notable act. He spent 3 陆 years stationed at Fort Abraham Lincoln in Mandan before his death.

Ali Quarne and M. Angel Moniz, two Bismarck mothers, brought the request to strip Custer's name from the park. Moniz is a member of the MHA Nation, and Quarne is the mother of two Native American children, which she said sparked her effort to try to get the park renamed to 鈥渙ffer some cultural competency.鈥�

鈥淐uster represents a certain type of historical trauma that I think the rest of the community couldn鈥檛 possibly understand,鈥� she said in an interview. 鈥淲hat we want to do is come together as one whole community and begin that healing process.鈥�

Quarne doesn't want the request to rename Custer Park to turn into an "us versus them" debate about race, but she said the Native American community has been feeling negative effects since the Dakota Access Pipeline protests in 2016 and 2017.

Moniz said she was born in Bismarck and was "baffled" after she moved back in 2005 to find places in the area named after Custer.

"As an indigenous person, it's just really upsetting," she said. "We should be more aware of everybody in the community. I mean, we have the largest population of indigenous people in the state right here in Bismarck and that (name) is directly excluding a lot of people. A lot of people don't feel comfortable and welcome at a park in our own community, and that's not right."

Quarne and Moniz wrote in their formal request to the park district that "the park's namesake does not best represent the value listed on your website, or community as a whole.鈥� The values listed on the park district鈥檚 website include accountability, collaboration, community, diversity, integrity and professionalism.

The two women said they are representing a few hundred people in the community who support renaming the park.

Park Board President Brian Beattie said he鈥檚 been aware of the rename request for several weeks. He鈥檚 not sure how the board will act on Thursday, Dec. 19, when it considers the request, but he hopes it can be tabled to give the board an opportunity to gather more information on Custer.

鈥淚 think we need to look at it carefully,鈥� Beattie said. 鈥淚鈥檓 not sure exactly what sort of commander he was. Did he command his troops to kill or torture or do anything to women, children and elderly? And I don鈥檛 know the answer to that question, so that鈥檚 what I would like to know.

鈥淔or people to not feel welcome in a park that's named after someone who did bad things to their people, I certainly understand that perspective,鈥� Beattie said.

The Bismarck park district is no stranger to park name changes. Hillside Park near Simle Middle 歪歪漫画 was changed to Lions Park in 1993, and Ward Indian Village was renamed Chief Lookings鈥� Village in 2002. Last year, the district got a request to change the name of General Sibley Park. That effort floundered because the land is owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which would need to be involved with any name change, said Randy Bina, executive director of the park district since 2011.

Custer Park is Bismarck鈥檚 first park. It鈥檚 at South Washington Street and Broadway Avenue and has a large metal eagle sculpture in its center. It was established by a women鈥檚 league in 1913 or 1914 before it was taken over by the city and eventually by the park district upon its establishment in 1927, Bina said.

The park's namesake was a complex man, said Dakota Goodhouse, a Native studies and history instructor at United Tribe Technical College.

Custer fought the Ku Klux Klan after the Civil War and testified to Congress on corruption that he observed in Indian Country months prior to his death, but he also was responsible for killing American Indians in an event eight years prior to the Battle of the Little Bighorn known as the Battle of the Washita River or the Washita Massacre, in which Indian women were raped and killed.

鈥淗is story makes a perfect scapegoat for the federal Indian policy of the 1800s,鈥� Goodhouse said. 鈥淔ailures, broken treaties, corruption in BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs). Even though he testified against it (corruption), he does make the perfect scapegoat for Native people and for Americans, too."

Custer was generally seen as a hero until the Vietnam War era changed people's attitudes about war, according to Goodhouse.

鈥淚 think that his story is a little too complex to say he was a bad guy," Goodhouse said.