The U.S. Department of the Interior announced Thursday that it has given new names to five locations that previously included the racist term for a Native American woman.
The sites were renamed in California, North Dakota, Tennessee and Texas, completing a year-long process to remove the historically offensive word “squaw” from geographic names across the country.
Home Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement: “Words matter, especially in our work to ensure our nation’s public lands and waters are accessible and welcoming. welcomes people of all backgrounds.” She calls that word “harmful.”
Haaland, who takes office in 2021, is the first Native American to lead a Cabinet agency.
In September, the Interior Ministry announced the final vote on proposals to change the names of nearly 650 places containing the word. The agency conducted an additional review of seven sites, all of which are considered unincorporated densely populated areas. Five of those were changed in Thursday’s announcement.
In western North Dakota, the new name Homesteaders Gap was chosen by members of a small community as a nod to their local history.
Mark Fox, tribal president of the Mandan Nation, Hidatsa and Arikara, welcomed the change, telling The Bismarck Tribune that profanity “really causes serious and powerful emotions as well as backlash. resistance to that term.” In a statement to the Associated Press, he said it was long overdue and “we are pleased that the offensive and racially insensitive name has been removed.”
But Joel Brown, a member of the McKenzie County Council of Commissioners, said many residents in the area “feel very strongly” against the transition.
Brown, who is white, said he and others want as little interference from the federal government as possible because “generally, we see them as disconnected from the culture and the economy here.” .”
The other two newly named sites are the Loybas Hill community in the Central Valley of California, meaning “Young Lady”, proposed by the Paskenta Band of the Nomlaki Indians; and Yokuts Valley.
The others are Partridgeberry, Tennessee and Lynn Creek, Texas.
The decision has long precedent. The Interior Ministry ordered the renaming of places with words derogatory to Blacks and Japanese in 1962 and 1974, respectively.
Last year alone, authorities renamed 28 places in Wisconsin to remove the word racist, a council proposed renaming a Colorado mountain tied to a massacre, and the federal government changed the name. hundreds of mountain peaks, lakes, streams, and other geographical features with racist and misogynistic content. condition.
