US renames 5 places that used racist slur for a Native woman

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By TRISHA AHMED today

The U.S. Department of the Interior announced Thursday that it has given new names to five places that previously included a racist term for a Native American woman.

The renamed sites are in California, North Dakota, Tennessee and Texas, completing a yearlong process to remove the historically offensive word “squaw” from geographic names across the country.

“Words matter, particularly in our work to ensure our nation’s public lands and waters are accessible and welcoming to people of all backgrounds,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement. She called the word “harmful.”

Haaland, who took office in 2021, is the first Native American to lead a Cabinet agency.



Read more: https://apnews.com/article/politics-wisconsin-us-department-of-the-interior-tennessee-texas-4bb30826b17c4426479f3a9082212fda

[COL Mustard]

1. Good.

I'm glad we're getting rid of placenames that are now offensive. I guess they were designed to be offensive so even better. I also like the fact that we're renaming Army bases and Navy ships that were named for traitors.

[EYESORE 9001]

2. I served aboard a US Naval vessel that was named for a traitor

A sworn enemy of the United States. The name rankled then and now, despite the vessel being decommissioned over 30 years ago.

[Warpy]

23. White folks in Dixie generally have no idea how offensive that is

To them, it's a remembrance of a glorious past (when their own ancestors were called trash to their faces). To us, it's a group of people who should have died and stayed buried, to exist only in history books as examples of what NOT to do.

[MicaelS]

26. Be nice if you gave us a clue. n/t

[NullTuples]

27. Be nicer to let the name fade into obscurity by not repeating it.

[EYESORE 9001]

32. TMI

One can easily Google a list of naval vessels named after confederate traitors. I served aboard one of ‘em.

[dlk]

3. Thank you Secretary Haaland

A reckoning with out deeply racist history is long overdue. This was a needed step in the right direction.

[frogmarch]

4. Squaw Lake, MN, is keeping its name

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/10/us/squaw-new-name.html

snip:

The names of civil features, including counties and incorporated places like Squaw Lake, Minn., are not part of the federal effort because they are outside the government’s authority.

[niyad]

5. Thank you, Sec. Haaland, and the rest of the Biden-Harris administration.

[Paladin]

6. Lots of Western-themed movies and TV shows where that word was routinely used.

I grew up hearing it, never aware of its true meaning. Glad to see something is being done about it, as to geographic sites.

[robbob]

13. Can you elaborate on the racist meaning behind the term?

I mean it’s obviously a white mans derogatory term to label Native American women, but is there more to the story?

(On edit) There’s a post below that explains the term in more detail. Racist and sexist term, indeed…

[CountAllVotes]

7. What about Squaw Valley

You know, the ski resort.

Busy right now I am sure!

[The Mouth]

9. The ski resort changed their name in 2021

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-09-13/squaw-valley-ski-resort-adopts-new-name

[CountAllVotes]

12. You would never know that

Being it was the site of the Olympics, that name is ingrained to place.

If you google Squaw Valley it comes up as the site of an Olympic ski event.

I'm glad they dumped the name.

I hope it fades into history but it will be difficult given it is known in the history books as the site of an Olympic event.

Glad to know this btw! Thank you for that.

[The Mouth]

28. You're welcome

My old guitarist, who is Pomo, was really happy about that happening.

[LeftInTX]

16. They changed the name to Palisades Tahoe.

As a private business the name change was voluntary

https://apnews.com/article/sports-california-business-native-americans-2020-tokyo-olympics-4d974f061651ce3ce2d740c14bd9221e

[Warpy]

25. I'm glad they did that, I was unaware of it, not being a skier.

I remember the flapdoodle over returning Mt. Denali to its rightful name in Alaska, think the whitefolks name was McKinley. Cousins up there always called it Denali, even before the name was changed back. I thought it was pretty funny that so many people kicked up a fuss over a name change from a president whose main claim to fame was getting assassinated early in his presidency, before he'd managed to create a legacy.

[Bayard]

17. Squaw Valley in central CA

Used to be down the road from where I lived. Its a wide place in the road, so probably not worth the locals trouble.

[vanlassie]

35. It's still there. The name does not get changed by the federal government.

It IS in the process of being changed, however.

[Bayard]

36. No kidding?

Hadn't heard that. I have friends there.

[Gore1FL]

8. I honestly never knew that was pejorative against native women.

I only ever read it in the context of kid's stories growing up where brave and squaw were used simply as synonyms for male/female. It was probably used less offensively in that setting and re-enforced with the naming of places. I Guess that's how it creeps into use.

I learned something new. Now that I know, I am glad it is stopping.

[CountAllVotes]

11. It is crude and insulting

Last edited Fri Jan 13, 2023, 09:28 PM - Edit history (1)

The use of the word "squaw" refers to a part of a woman's body.

The word begins with a "v" and ends with an "a".

Being taken into concubine is sickening and horrible, all of it!

[Gore1FL]

29. In almost 57 years, today is when I learned all of this.

I accepted the less controversial definition in the 3rd grade and never really gave it any though in the decades thereafter.

I appreciate the education. I never knew the truth behind it until now.

[CountAllVotes]

30. Neither did I

I learned all about it in graduate school.

One of my good friends (deceased) did not know either. When I told her she was shocked. She was Navajo, Cherokee and Wyandotte.

Shocked at the age of 78 years old!

So you (and I) are not alone!

As I said before, knowledge is power.

[Igel]

31. That's the accepted wisdom.

As far as I know, nobody's mounted a good argument based on the facts against

https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/handle/10088/94999/squaw%20article%20on%20web%20page.pdf?sequence=1

I've heard indignation-as-argument, ad-hominem-as-argument, but evidence that disconfirms his assertions. (If anybody has any actual evidence based on first attestations and access to Iroquoian in the early 1600s by English speakers in the extreme eastern part of the Atlantic coast, PM me.)

Years later, 2004, https://forums.powwows.com/forum/general/native-life/native-issues/8951-what-does-the-word-squaw-really-mean .

Amusingly, from the second link, which accepts Goddard argument...

One doesn't want to get overly PC about it, but the protesters have a point when they say special terms for minority women are inherently demeaning. Think about it.

I won't include her examples in quotes. Quotes are meaningless in this context.

Use of "PC" notwithstanding, there's a not-so-tacit argument there for having the government restrict speech in the quoted post. (Goddard was being academic. "Just the facts. Historical linguistic and etymological facts.&quot

[XorXor]

33. Wow, 2004...

I know I'm going off-topic here, but it just hit me that 2004 was 19 years ago. It bothers me that I can recall a memory from 20 years ago and in that memory I was an adult. I know I'm a young whippersnapper here on DU and that many of you were my current age back when I was 20, but wow that's crazy for me to think about.

[LakeArenal]

34. Can't we use the word vagina? I thought we are supposed to use the term.

[XorXor]

15. Same here.

[dembotoz]

10. would love to be the sign maker and business card printer in those places

[XorXor]

14. I didn't know that was considered an offensive word until recently

I wasn't even aware it was a word used against native women.

[CountAllVotes]

18. Well now you know

Knowledge is power.

Knowledge is how we break the cycle of genocide against any people that have suffered because of hatred and ignorance like Jewish people, the Irish, Native Americans and many others of course.

[IronLionZion]

19. Our culture is evolving as people learn more from each other

So what they taught in schools and media years ago didn't consult with the people impacted. Now that more diverse Americans are in positions of influence, that changes as new voices are heard.

[XorXor]

22. I never gave it much thought as to what it meant

If someone asked me a couple years ago, I would have suggested that maybe it was a native word for some sort of geographic feature, or something along those lines.

[IronLionZion]

24. I didn't know either, but this claims every tribe in the US and Canada views it as derogatory

so it's universally condemned as an ethnic and sexual slur. I'm sure this is news to plenty of non-indigenous people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squaw

[hippywife]

20. Excerpt...

But Joel Brown, a member of the McKenzie County Board of Commissioners, said many residents in the area “felt very strongly” in opposition to the switch. Brown, who is white, said he and others prefer as little interference from the federal government as possible because “generally we find they’re disconnected from what the culture and economy are out here.”

Well, Joel, all I gotta say is, "Fuck you twenty ways to Sunday!"

[jeffreyi]

21. Good.

There's two local ones, a mountain and a hwy pass, on public land that need renamed ASAP as well. The ones with the "n" word and other ethnic slurs were already renamed decades ago. Another insulting one (this I heard long ago from a NA guy I worked with) is the "p" word for babies. There are places with that name around here also. I would just as soon lose all the colonist place names for natural features. There were already perfectly good, often meaningful indigenous names that were disrespected and discarded either on purpose or from ignorance. Another one , "d", used to be the common name of a conifer, Pinus sabiniana now called "gray pine". I actually saw that one being used recently in a popular blog. I contacted the author, who is a good person who would never do this if he knew. When he did know, he was appalled. A lot of modern people do not mean harm, but just don't know about these words. I would like to see a list, I'm sure I don't know about all of the bad ones, either.

[ck4829]

37. Good

Last edited Tue Jan 24, 2023, 11:25 AM - Edit history (2)

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