»US renames five locations where a Native woman was called a racial slur«
The U.S. Department of the Interior announced Thursday that it has renamed five locations that formerly had a derogatory epithet for a Native American woman.
Sites in California, North Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas have been renamed, concluding a yearlong effort to remove the historically insulting term “squaw” from geographical designations across the nation.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement, “Words matter, especially in our efforts to ensure that our nation’s public lands and waters are accessible and welcoming to people of all backgrounds.” She described the term as “harmful.”
In 2021, Haaland became the first Native American to manage a Cabinet agency.
In September, the Interior Department announced its final vote on bids to rename over 650 sites using the phrase. The agency undertook an extra evaluation of seven locations, all of which were unincorporated communities. In Thursday’s release, five of these were revised.
Members of a tiny town in western North Dakota chose the moniker Homesteaders Gap as a homage to their local history.
Mark Fox, tribe chairman of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation, applauded the change, stating to The Bismarck Tribune that the epithet “really causes serious and strong emotions and resistance” In a statement to The Associated Press, he stated that the removal of the racially insensitive and disrespectful name was long overdue.
The Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians proposed the naming of Loybas Hill, which translates to “Young Lady,” and Yokuts Valley, both located in California’s Central Valley.
Partridgeberry, Tennessee, and Lynn Creek, Texas, are the others.
The decision has a lengthy pedigree. In 1962 and 1974, the Interior Department ordered the renaming of locations using pejorative terms for Black and Japanese people.
The federal government rebranded hundreds of mountains, lakes, streams, and other geological features with racist and misogynistic names in the past year alone.
Indigenous campaigner Roman C. Rain Tree and his daughter Lola, age 10, in front of the “Squaw Valley” town sign in Fresno County.
Change the name of Squaw Valley to Fresno County
»US renames five locations where a Native woman was called a racial slur«