“Our nation’s lands and waters should be places to celebrate our shared outdoors and cultural heritage – not to perpetuate legacies of oppression.” Interior Minister Deb Haaland said as she ordered the word “squaw” removed from federal landmarks.
Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty Images
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Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty Images
“Our nation’s lands and waters should be places to celebrate our shared outdoors and cultural heritage – not to perpetuate legacies of oppression.” Interior Minister Deb Haaland said as she ordered the word “squaw” removed from federal landmarks.
Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty Images
Interior Minister Deb Haaland officially declared “squaw” a derogatory term on Friday and ordered a task force to find alternative names for the valleys, lakes, creeks and other locations across the country. federal lands use this word.
The order, effective immediately, will affect more than 650 landmarks that use the term, according to US Geographical Commission figures.
“Racist terms have no place in our vernacular or on our federal lands. The lands and waters of our nation must be places to celebrate the outdoors and our heritage. our common culture – not to perpetuate a legacy of oppression”, Haaland said in a news release about change.
The origin of the word “squaw” has been traced to Algonquian language, where it simply means “woman”. But its meaning has been skewed due to centuries of use by whites, including colonization in the 1600s.
“The term has historically been used as an ethnically, racially and sexist derogatory term, especially against Indigenous women,” the Home Office said.
The new federal action is one of the biggest steps forward in efforts to remove hurtful words from landmarks. In recent decades, several states from Maine to Oregon have dropped the term “squaw” from place names. And earlier this year, a Lake Tahoe . Ski Resort dropped the longstanding name Squaw Valley, saying it was racist and sexist.
Haaland is first Native American to serve in the Cabinet in American history. She is a member of Laguna Pueblo of New Mexico.
In announcing the ban on the term, the Home Office noted that Haaland was following the same path that her predecessors and the Council on Geographical Names had taken before, when they realized that a words that have been widely recognized as offensive or offensive.
In the 1960s and ’70s, the agency said, landmarks containing black and Japanese profanity were replaced at the wholesale level.
News of the policy change comes as the United States marks Native American Heritage Month. The day before, President Biden hold a summit with tribal states at the White House.
