The "Wooden Shoe" formation in Canyonlands National Park has lent its name to a nearby canyon as a result of the Interior Department's decision to remove derogatory place names from federal lands/NPS file
Two dozen new place names can be found across the National Park System in the wake of the Interior Department's scrubbing of "squaw" from geographic locations across federal lands.
The changes were called for by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland last November. At the time, she said a formal review process had been created to come up with new names for places currently carrying derogatory names. Along that line, she also declared “squaw” to be a derogatory term and ordered the Board on Geographic Names – the federal body tasked with naming geographic places – to implement procedures to remove the term from federal usage.
“I feel a deep obligation to use my platform to ensure that our public lands and waters are accessible and welcoming. That starts with removing racist and derogatory names that have graced federal locations for far too long,” the secretary said Thursday in announcing the name changes. “I am grateful to the members of the Derogatory Geographic Names Task Force and the Board on Geographic Names for their efforts to prioritize this important work. Together, we are showing why representation matters and charting a path for an inclusive America.”
Names that have changed:
- Squaw Branch at Natchez Trace Parkway in Tennessee is now Natchez Branch.
- Squaw Creek at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota is now Long Creek
- Squaw Creek at Curecanti National Recreation Area in Colorado is now Cimarron Creek
- Squaw Fingers at Colorado National Monument in Colorado is now Artists Fingers.
- Squaw Canyon in Canyonlands National Park in Utah is now Wooden Shoe Canyon.
- Squaw Flat in Canyonlands is now Salt Flat.
- Squaw Hill in Dinosaur National Monument in Utah is now Sage Hill.
- Squaw Canyon in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Utah is now Smoky Canyon.
- Squaw Spring in Canyonlands is now Salt Flat Spring.
- Squaw Creek in Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah is now Promontory Creek.
- Squaw Butte in Canyonlands is now Salt Flat Butte.
- Squaw Peaks Cove at Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Nevada is now Mohave Cove.
- Squaw Spring in Death Valley National Park in California is now Needle Spring.
- Squaw Tank in Joshua Tree National Park in California is now Paac Kü_vü_hü_'k
- Squaw Tit at Mojave National Preserve in California is now Mojave Peak.
- Squaw Creek at Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks in California is now Scratch Creek.
- Squaw Peaks at Lake Mead is now Mohave Peaks.
- Squaw Creek at Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area in Washington is now Snqílt Creek
- Squaw Creek in Olympic National Park in Washington is now Gathering Creek.
- Squaw Lake at Mount Rainier National Park in Washington is now Kiya Lake.
- Squaw Creek at Wrangell-St. Elias National Park in Alaska is now Kuy'aa Creek.
- Squaw Island at Wrangell-St. Elias is now Tsedi Ts'ese'
- Squaw Mountain at Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve in Alaska is now Jëjezhuu Tr'injàa Mountain.
- Squaw Rapids at Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve is now Glacier River Rapids.
The Derogatory Geographic Names Task Force was established by Secretary’s Order 3404 and included representatives from the Department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, National Park Service, Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Civil Rights, Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, and the U.S. Geological Survey and the Department of Agriculture’s U.S. Forest Service.
During the public comment period, the Task Force received more than 1,000 recommendations for name changes. Nearly 70 tribal governments participated in nation-to-nation consultation, which yielded another several hundred recommendations.
The renaming effort included several complexities: evaluation of multiple public or tribal recommendations for the same feature; features that cross tribal, federal and state jurisdictions; inconsistent spelling of certain Native language names; and reconciling diverse opinions from various proponents. In all cases, the Task Force carefully evaluated every comment and proposal, according to a release from Interior.
Comments
If "squaw" is used by Native Americans and is not derogatory, then how is it that a white person can claim it as such? This is the way of white people, they determine what minorities must think.
Can you please tell me how the term "squaw" is derogatory when it is a Native American term for "woman"?
SQUAW: Eastern and Central Algonquian morphemes (smallest units of meaning) meaning "woman" (mostly found as components in longer words) include: Massachusett squaw ("woman"), Abenaki -skwa ("female, wife"), Mohegan-Pequot sqa, Cree iskwew ("woman"), Ojibwe ikwe ("woman"). Variants in other related languages are: esqua, sqeh, skwe, que, kwa, exkwew, xkwe. These are all derived from Proto-Algonquian *ethkwe*wa ("(young) woman")
Are you folks just selectively reading?
From the exact article you're commenting on:
"The changes were called for by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland last November. At the time, she said a formal review process had been created to come up with new names for places currently carrying derogatory names. Along that line, she also declared "squaw" to be a derogatory term and ordered the Board on Geographic Names - the federal body tasked with naming geographic places - to implement procedures to remove the term from federal usage."
And in case you didn't realize... Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is Native American.
Read the article, John.
White people didn't declare the word to be derogatory. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (who is Native American) directed the changes and said the term is derogatory.
Because it is derogatory. It isn't used by Native Americans outside of western novels.
This is not very hard stuff.
More Newspeak. It's only derogatory for those that want to make it so.
https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/the-word-squaw-offensive-or-not
Did you read the article?
It's clear that it may have not been offensive in 1620 but it's usage in modern times has been universally offensive.
Responding - as I said Newspeak. Its people trying to MAKE the word offensive. Its creating victims. Nobody goes around calling someone "squaw" with the intent to offend. People just want to be offended by a name that was used to honor someone a hundred years ago.