BILLINGS — The president of the Northern Cheyenne Indian tribe is proposing renaming at least two communities on his southeast Montana reservation, replacing names assigned by whites with those that he said would foster ‘‘a stronger pride in our community.''

Eugene Little Coyote told The Associated Press on Wednesday some tribal members may consider his idea radical but he believes towns with Cheyenne names would have more cultural significance, especially for younger American Indians.

He plans to formally propose changing the names of Lame Deer and Busby during a reservation summit next week.

‘‘One of the outcomes, if this should happen, is to take stronger pride in our communities, develop our communities correctly, have healthier communities, with Cheyenne names, for Cheyenne people,'' said Little Coyote, 33.

‘‘We have names for all our places, but we're not using them,'' he added. ‘‘I'd like to propose we go by those.''

For example, he said Lame Deer, the seat of tribal government, is also known by many tribal members as Black Lodge, in reference to the staining of tepees from burning timber inside.

Busby, in the western part of the reservation, was named for an early white storeowner and carries a ‘‘bad connotation,'' Little Coyote said. ‘‘Our own people make fun of it.''

‘‘My way of thinking, as a Cheyenne, is that it should be named after a Cheyenne leader or something of our choosing,'' he said. Many on the reservation now know Busby as White River.

Little Coyote said he didn't expect a formal decision to be made on his name change idea at next week's summit. Tribal members likely would hold a vote on the proposal sometime next year, he said.

‘‘If they want to do it, great, that's what I would like,'' Little Coyote said. ‘‘If they would want it to stay the same, that's their choice.''

Jeffrey Sanders, a professor of Native American studies at Montana State University-Billings, said names given to places by the Indian tribes themselves have more meaning to them than names assigned by others.

‘‘As tribal languages have become resuscitated, become enlivened, there has been a call to say, ‘This is the name of the place. This is the name before the Europeans came,''' he said.

Sanders said he'd envision a collaborative approach, if such a proposal goes forward, including the tribe, the state and the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Alec Hansen, executive director of the Montana League of Cities and Towns, said neither Lame Deer nor Busby are incorporated and that the tribe, as a sovereign nation, probably could change the towns' names to whatever it preferred.