While getting ready for a trip to Shasta Lake, I noticed something strange. Our favorite spot on the lake had a new name: Sulanharas Creek.

That name caught my attention. Sulanharas? I’d never heard it before. So I looked it up on Wikipedia. Sure enough, it was mentioned in the Shasta Lake article, but the link to it was red. That’s Wikipedia-speak for “this page doesn’t exist yet.”

Now, anyone can create a new Wikipedia page, but there’s a process. You don’t just publish it live. You submit it as a draft, and Wikipedia moderators review it to make sure it meets their standards. It’s a solid system, and I respect the checks and balances.

So I got curious. I did a bit of digging and found out that back in 2022, the Department of the Interior launched a program to rename geographic places that used the word “squaw”, a term that’s widely considered derogatory. The DOI worked with local Indigenous tribes to suggest new names.

That’s when I found something fascinating. There’s a Wintu creation myth, documented in the late 1800s that mentions Sulanharas as a place within the rivers and homelands of the Wintu people. It made perfect sense to me: this new name likely came from that myth, a way of honoring the original stewards of the land.

So I created a draft Wikipedia page. I added references to the DOI renaming initiative and linked to the Wintu creation story. I followed the formatting rules. I felt good about it.

And then it got rejected.

Why? Because even though I made what I thought was a pretty solid connection between the name and the myth, I couldn’t find any official source confirming that connection. The DOI website doesn’t explain where “Sulanharas” came from. There’s no citation tying the renaming directly to the Wintu myth. And without that, the moderators couldn’t accept it.

I’m not upset about this at all. I really do appreciate the rigor applied by the Wikipedia moderators to make sure that facts presented can be backed up by actual references.

Still, I hope that one day someone does confirm the connection. I find the name Sulanharas beautiful and meaningful. It deserves to be known and understood.

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