Section 1 Findings
Congress finds the following:
Oral history from the Wenatchi band of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and from the Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe identifies the traditional Native American names for the 7,630-foot peak located at latitude 48.11516° N, longitude 120.94636° W, in what is now the Glacier Peak Wilderness in the State of Washington, as “qwəɬtmáyqn” and “ʔistiqayuʔ” in the languages of the Wenatchi and Sauk-Suiattle peoples, respectively, both meaning “Wolverine Head”.
These names derive from a Wenatchi (šnp̍əšqwáw̉šəxw) creation story involving a battle between a wolverine and a grizzly bear over the love of a spruce grouse, or fool hen.
The culture and economy of both the Wenatchi (šnp̍əšqwáw̉šəxw) and Sauk-Suiattle (Saʔqwəbixw-Suyaƛʔbixw) people centered around fishing, but they also gathered roots and berries and hunted game in the surrounding mountains.
The Wenatchi and Sauk-Suiattle people have a long history of interaction and intermarriage that connected the Northwest Coastal Salish and the Plateau Salish peoples.
During the twentieth century, the peak informally came to be known as “Mount Cleator” in recognition of Frederick W. “Fred” Cleator, an early employee of the United States Forest Service who surveyed and assisted in the establishment of national forests and trail systems in the Pacific Northwest and was one of the Service’s first recreational planners.
Cleator is credited with establishing the Oregon Skyline Trail, a 350-mile trail in the Oregon Cascades, and the Cascade Crest Trail, a 500-mile trail in the State of Washington. Both trails formed the basis for the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail in Oregon and Washington.
In the late 1920s, Cleator named and began the development of the Cascade Crest Trail in Washington and, by the mid-1930s, his team had mapped the 450-mile trail and begun construction.
During his 35-year Forest Service career, Cleator surveyed the Olympic, Wenatchee, and Chelan national forests and held positions in the Wenatchee and Colville National Forests and in what is today the Forest Service’s Northwest Regional Office in Portland, Oregon.