From their site: ‘Also known as ‘Cherokee Black,’ this variety excels as both a snap and a dry bean; when mature, the 6” purple-tinged green pods encase shiny, jet-black seeds. This bean was shared with Seed Savers Exchange by the late Dr. John Wyche of Hugo, Oklahoma. His Cherokee ancestors carried the variety over the Trail of Tears, the infamous winter death march from the Smoky Mountains to Oklahoma (1838-39) that left a trail of 4,000 graves.’
Seed Savers Exchange is a very small company, not a mega-corp. They're doing their best.
But also, I must be missing something. What made OP do a double-take?
Trail of tears. (Folksy name for the forced march to their death/ genocide of the so called 5 civilized tribes of native Americans)
Although having actually read this now apparently the seeds were saved and kept by survivors so maybe it's not an insane name.
But it's the equivalent of naming a variety of beets "Auschwitz yum yums"
According to my seed packet they carried them along the Trail of Tears, eating some but saving some and planted them as soon as they arrived, (they were obviously still starving but at least I guess they could hunt when they weren't being forced to keep moving) and the beans helped sustain their heritage as well as their lives.
I hear you. But I think in this case, naming these seeds this way might cause some people to go read about the tragedy, keep it in peoples minds.
SSE is a decent company. If they printed it, they knew what they were doing. And it made people look up the meaning.
I think they made a fair choice.