OGDEN — The westernmost portion of 2nd Street will soon be named after one of the first Shoshone chiefs known to inhabit the area that is now Ogden.

By a vote of 5-2, the Ogden City Council approved a resolution Tuesday night that will honorarily name 2nd Street “Chief Little Soldier Way” from Wall Avenue to Century Drive. Chief Little Soldier, a leader of the Northwestern band of the Shoshone Nation, was a beloved and popular chief of the tribe and lived in the Ogden area during the middle of the 19th century.

The honorary naming has been quite the odyssey for the council.

On May 25, almost a year after Ogden resident Anna Keogh first submitted a petition for the naming and after she modified an original proposal of hers, the council voted 3-3 on a measure that would have named the section of street “Bingham Fort-Chief Little Soldier Lane.”

Keogh’s original proposal involved naming the street simply “Bingham Fort Lane.” In the mid-1800s, the entire area near 2nd Street west of Wall Avenue served as a fort for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The fort was a gathering spot for about 600 early settlers and was the largest fort in the Weber County area. That proposal was criticized by Ogden’s Diversity Commission and by some members of the council, with concerns centering around the failure to include a Native American component in the name and what some described as the potentially troublesome usage of the word “fort.”

The Northwestern Shoshone tribe was known to inhabit the area near present day 2nd Street and Wall Avenue, and the diversity commission and some members of the public reasoned that white settler forts of the 1800s West were indicative of a troubled and often violent history between Native Americans and early European settlers. So the second name proposal, which kept in the word “fort,” also gave some members of the council pause, resulting in the 3-3 vote.

Subsequently, Council member Rich Hyer made a motion to revisit the issue, reasoning that it at least deserved a seven-person vote and not a tie, and Keogh modified her proposal a second time, landing on “Chief Little Soldier Way” for the honorary name.

This spring, Darren Parry, a previous chairman of the Northwestern Shoshone Nation, outlined that proposal with the nation’s seven-member tribal council, which approved of the naming unanimously after a formal vote.

Keogh has said the process, although lengthy, resulted in the correct name for the street. She called the council’s yes vote on Tuesday a “monumental expansion of Ogden’s effort to support diversity awareness.”

Several council members, while acknowledging that landing on the final name for the road was somewhat of an arduous process, said they were happy with the way the issue got resolved, highlighting Keogh’s efforts, the diversity commission’s input and members of the public who got involved with the issue.

“It’s really exciting when we have the public get engaged,” said Council member Luis Lopez.

Council members Angela Choberka and Marcia White voted against the measure, but noted their decisions had more to do with process than anything else.

“I appreciate so much all the efforts … but … we’re reviewing the process for putting forth street names and how that should go about, so I don’t feel comfortable at this time voting for this particular initiative,” Choberka said.

The council is currently taking an in-depth look at its process for how such names are approved. Mainly in an effort to encourage equity and inclusion, but also to more clearly define how honorary street names are accepted and approved by the city, the council is currently parsing through a draft ordinance that would implement a host of new guidelines for the practice.

In what is in many ways a culmination of the prolonged effort at naming the street, the Weber County Heritage Foundation is spearheading a special event that will formally highlight the Shoshone that lived in Ogden.

The group’s “Weber County Time Machine: Meet the Shoshone” event has been set for 7 p.m. on Aug. 7 at the Stone Farm, 301 W. 2nd Street in Ogden. The event, which had originally been scheduled for the end of July, will feature interactive crafts, Shoshone artifacts and photographs, storytelling, music, hayrides, a Shoshone traditional cooking demonstration and more.