Man coordinates project to rename Tarbone Mountain

Kim Shahan has moved into educator mode after coordinating a project to restore the original name of Tarbone Mountain in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge.

The U.S. Board on Geographic Names notified Shahan that effective Nov. 9, 2023, what has been Tarbone Mountain on federal maps since 1950 will be labeled as Tah-bone-mah Mountain. The designation means that as federal maps are updated during the normal revision cycle, the mountain will be labeled Tah-bone-mah Mountain, with the site specifying the peak 16 miles northwest of Lawton is named for Kiowa-American soldier and U.S. Army Indian Scout I-See-O, also known as Tah-bone-mah.

The notification is the conclusion of a project Shahan launched in 2020. It’s also one he coordinated with the Kiowa Tribe, recently concluding with a picture Shahan presented to the tribe showing a portion of the refuge’s ridgeline: Tah-bone-mah Mountain on the west and Mount Scott on the east.

Shahan, who sees the view from his Camp Y’shua at the base of the Wichita Mountains, said it’s the closure of something Gen. Hugh Scott always intended: naming the mountain after a decades-long friend and Indian scout. Shahan said Scott planned for the mountain to hold Tah-bone-mah’s name, adding it is fitting the two peaks are linked to men who knew and worked together for years.

That’s the history Shahan wants to explain as he moves into a project to present copies of the ridgeline photograph to entities in the area that should be aware and telling the story of a man given the name Tah-bone-mah as a sickly 4-year-old before taking the name I-See-O when he enlisted in the U.S. Army’s 7th Cavalry in the mid-1800s.

Shahan said he doesn’t know why the name changed when the federal government applied formal names to peaks within the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in the 1950s — he assumes it was an error. But, he knows Scott’s intent because of his research. He also knows the Kiowa language provides another clue that Tarbone was not the intended name.

“Kiowa has no ‘R’,” he said, explaining the word Tarbone has a sound that doesn’t exist in the Kiowa language. “It was a misspelling and not an intentional error.”

Shahan said while some people over the years have referred to Tarbone by its proper name, the federal government didn’t recognize that name on official maps.

Shahan decided in 2020 he wanted to change that, after awaking one night and realizing the importance of the name. Tah-bone-mah also tied into Camp Y’shua and the strong religious nature of those involved: Shahan himself, the Kiowa people and Tah-bone-mah’s family, including the uncle who gave him a name that means See Big Morning Star. He knows the story because it is documented in Scott’s diary, as told by Tah-bone-mah himself. And as a man of faith, Shahan said the name is reminiscent of Revelations 22:16, which quotes Jesus as saying “I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the Bright Morning Star.”

Shahan said he realized it was important to him to restore the mountain’s intended and culturally accurate name. After reading Scott’s diary, he understood the name was important to Scott as well. And, he said it was only natural the Wichita Mountain’s most familiar peak — Mount Scott —and a nearby mountain reflect the friendship of men linked by military history.

The speed of the response may be startling, but some may argue it was a sign the project was meant to be. Shahan contacted the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (an entity he didn’t know existed before then) in 2020 and was contacted in 2021 to provide further documentation. What he uncovered in his search is providing the background for the educational outreach he now is pursuing.

The ridgeline picture Shahan presented to the Kiowa Tribe is the same one he wants to present to Museum of the Great Plains, Fort Sill and the Visitor Center at the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. Each is a place that already tells the area history, and Shahan wants to provide another piece. He’s also planning a ceremony in the fall to mark the name change.

“I want to honor what was intended,” he said.