No mo Squaw
The U.S. Department of the Interior is requesting public input on new names for more than 650 geographic features with racially offensive names.
In November, DOI Secretary Deb Haaland signed Secretarial Order 3404 declaring a word that originated as an Algonquin term for "woman" a derogatory name. Its meaning has shifted after centuries of use by white people as an offensive term for Indigenous women.
Melissa Doud, a program director with the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council and a member of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, supports the order.
"It's such a derogatory and negative thing to call a woman," Doud said. "We're resilient people, and it's only fair to change the name to something that isn't so racist."
The federal order outlined steps for removing the term from federal and state lands, one of the steps included forming the Derogatory Geographic Names Task Force.
By March, the task force identified 664 geographical features — such as creeks, lakes, rivers and valleys — across the country that use the term and proposed five new names for each site.
http://www.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/elips/documents/so-3404-508.pdf
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