Announcing ‘Scht Wiwnu Park
- 20 hours ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 17 hours ago
[March 15, 2026]
After a process going back to 2022 and a price tag of over $20,000, Portland Parks and Recreation has announced a new name for A Park.
The new name is ‘Scht Wiwnu (pronounced Ish-chit Way-el-noo; watch a video to hear the pronunciation). It means “path of the huckleberry” in Ichishkin Sńwit, a language spoken by Native American tribes of the Columbia River region, including the Nez Perce, Umatilla, Warm Springs, and Yakama.
In an announcement, Parks spokesperson Mark Ross added that a nature path in the park is planted with native huckleberries, an important traditional food for local tribes.
"Using our language to name this park is really something special," the announcement quoted Dallas Winishut, Ichishkin Sńwit language teacher with the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. "I learned this language from my family members, and we're in turn teaching it to our younger people to make sure it's carried on."
Originally named Custer Park, the park was “un-named” by outgoing City Commissioner Amanda Fritz in 2020. Lacking the power to rename the park outright, she took the most expedient action available, leaving the public space with the placeholder name “A Park.”
Fritz told the Hillsdale News via email: “I am very glad the community process gives honor to the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, whose ancestors lived on lands south of the Columbia since time immemorial before ceding ten million acres in the Treaty of 1855 and relocating to their current reservation.”
The Parks Department announcement did not acknowledge the irony of giving a Native-language name to a park formerly called Custer, a name most closely associated with the 19th-century U.S. Army general known for his military campaigns against Native Americans.
Fritz pointed out that there is some disagreement over whether the first name was in fact chosen to honor the general: “While some neighbors believe the park was named for a Swiss immigrant, Alois Custer, the previous name is inextricably linked to the murderous general and I am proud to have instigated the change.”
Since its first nameless days, officials have signaled that A Park’s new name would likely honor the Indigenous community.
Following the park’s “un-naming” in 2020, a committee was formed in 2022 to select new names for both the park and the former Wilson Pool. That same year, the pool was renamed for Ida B. Wells in coordination with the high school on whose campus it sits, but the committee continued to deliberate over a name for the park. The committee selected a name that was then submitted to a consultant to lead an Indigenous engagement process. That process was delayed until 2024 due to “limited consultant capacity.”
Park neighbor and resident of Custer Drive Rachelle Dixon spoke to the Hillsdale News about her frustration with the renaming process.
Dixon, a Black and Indigenous woman, started advocating for a name change for the park as early as 2017. Her end goal, she said, was renaming SW Custer St. and SW Custer Dr., but she thought it would be easier to start with the park. Early efforts included trying to get meetings with city staff and Parks officials, a petition that collected over 1,800 signatures, and a well attended 2020 “picnic protest” at the park that nearly got her arrested.
The petition called for naming the park after early 20th-century civil rights activist Beatrice Morrow Cannady, a Black woman who lived in SW Portland and a was a journalist, lawyer, and founder of the Portland chapter of the NAACP.
When the Parks name-change committee formed, Dixon signed up. But she remained troubled by what she saw as the city’s lack of initiative in renaming public assets such as Custer Park and Custer Dr.
“No one wants to spend eight years getting the name of a street changed,” she said. “That’s not equitable, and it can never be made equitable.”
Dixon is happy with the outcome, calling it a much-needed win for the Native community. But, she, said, "Anyone who thinks this is a successful process is unfamiliar with what good governance is and what equity inclusion and justice should look like." Until the city creates a better renaming process—one that proactively reviews public assets rather than waiting for community complaints—she said the system will remain inequitable.
Although Dixon plans to submit a street name change application, the name Custer will not be easily eradicated from SW Portland.
While an individual or organization can submit a name change, the rules allow for consideration of only one application at at time. If there’s already a change in the pipeline, any others go on a waitlist. There’s also the matter of funds to carry out the process and change street signs—the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) has a moratorium on processing street renaming applications, due to "ongoing resource constraints."
City streets may only be renamed after “a prominent person” who has to have been a real person and have been dead for at least 5 years, although this and several other code provisions were waived by City Council when it renamed a portion of SW Jackson St. on the Portland State University campus. A stretch of the street was renamed SW Rose Hill street in February of 2026, to honor an Indigenous community leader who played an important role in the development of PSU's Native American Student and Community Center.
Similarly, the renaming of O'Bryant Square to Darcelle VX Plaza was accomplished in just one week in 2023, bypassing many of the Parks Department rules around renaming parks.
Costs for the renaming process of the pool and park included $1,500 in stipends for volunteer committee members, approximately $3,000 for signage, and $17,000 for the indigenous engagement consultant.
Naming ceremony event at ‘Scht Wiwnu Park, SW 21st Avenue and SW Capitol Hwy.
Saturday, March 28, 3-5pm
This event will include:
Native drumming and songs
Family-friendly activities
Food from a Native vendor
Speakers include:
Dallas Winishut of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs
Retired Portland Commissioner Amanda Fritz
Members of the naming committee
—Valeurie Friedman
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