Little Kiska Island, located at the far western end of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, was a site of significant military activity during World War II. In June 1942, the Japanese military captured both Kiska Island and Little Kiska, potentially to divert U.S. forces from an impending invasion of Midway Island, situated approximately 1,100 miles northwest of Pearl Harbor.
The Japanese occupation lasted just over a year, but it left a lasting mark on the geography of Little Kiska. A one-mile creek flowing southeast into the Pacific Ocean was named Nazi Creek, a designation assigned by Americans rather than the Japanese. Until recently, this creek was the only geographic feature in the United States with "Nazi" in its name, according to the United States Geological Survey database.
The name Nazi Creek was described as "arbitrarily applied" by the United States Army Air Forces for tactical reasons during the war, and it first appeared on an Army map in 1953. The name was chosen because the military needed a name starting with "N" to fit an alphanumeric grid imposed on the area. Similarly, a small elevation on the island was named Nip Hill, derived from a derogatory term for Japanese people. Although the Japanese forces departed, these names persisted on an island that has remained largely uninhabited since the war.
Recently, the Domestic Names Committee of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names approved new names for both the creek and the hill. The creek is now called Kaxchim Chiĝanaa, meaning "gizzard creek" or "creek or river belonging to gizzard island" in Unangam Tunuu, the Aleut language of the Indigenous Unangax̂ people. The hill has been renamed Kaxchim Qayaa, or "gizzard hill."
Moses Dirks, an expert in Unangam Tunuu, suggested these names, noting that "gizzard" is the traditional name for Little Kiska Island, as recorded in the Aleut Dictionary compiled in 1994. The state emphasized that a local Indigenous name is more fitting than one associated with Adolf Hitler's regime, which was responsible for millions of deaths.
The renaming is also seen as a way to honor the Unangax̂ people. Following the Japanese attack, approximately 880 Unangax̂ residents were evacuated from the Aleutian Islands and placed in internment camps in southeastern Alaska, where many suffered poor conditions and over 80 individuals became ill and died before returning home. In 1988, Congress approved reparations for Japanese Americans interned during the war, which also included compensation for the relocated Unangax̂ people.
The U.S. Board on Geographic Names' approval allows for the official change of the creek and hill names in federal databases, which are utilized by commercial entities for public mapping. The U.S. Geological Survey has already updated its records for the creek. The campaign for the name changes gained traction this spring when the Alaska Historical Commission unanimously voted in favor of the changes, which received support from local Native tribes, the Museum of the Aleutians, and residents of Japanese and Jewish heritage, as well as the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.
Little Kiska is part of the refuge, which encompasses five million acres of protected land in the Aleutians, primarily managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In response to the U.S. Geological Survey's inquiry about the duration of local use for the new names, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources and the state’s Office of History and Archaeology simply stated: centuries.