Remember Spc. Lori Piestewa? Well after five years, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names voted to change the name of a prominent peak in Phoenix, AZ in her honor.

The federal government has agreed to change the name of a prominent Phoenix mountain to Piestewa Peak to honor the first American Indian woman to die in combat while serving in the U.S. military.

The plan to change the name sparked heated debate in Arizona.

Spc. Lori Piestewa, a 23-year-old Hispanic-Hopi mother of two from Tuba City on the Navajo Reservation, died after her convoy was ambushed near Nasiriyah in March 2003. Members of 507th Maintenance Company, including her best friend, Jessica Lynch, were taken prisoner; others died.

The desert mountain used to be named Squaw Peak, a controversial name that many American Indians find offensive and have been trying to change for years. The peak is popular with local hikers attracted by its convenient location in the middle of the city and its challenging trails to the 2,600-foot summit.

The 11 members of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names who voted April 10 for the name change felt that Piestewa symbolizes everyone who has died in the line of duty, Lou Yost, the board’s executive secretary, said.

The Arizona State Board on Geographic and Historic Names renamed the mountain soon after Piestewa was killed in Iraq in 2003. But the federal board requires a five-year wait before it considers changing the name of geographic features on maps and other federal publications — in part to allow those arguing passionately for or against a name change to cool down.

Those five years didn’t do much to cool down hundreds of Arizonans, both for and against the change. The board received an unprecedented 1,300 calls, e-mails and letters about the name change, with about two-thirds in favor of Piestewa Peak.