US changes names of places with racist term for Native women

— The U.S. government has joined a ski resort and others that have quit using a racist term for a Native American woman by renaming hundreds of peaks, lakes, streams and other geographical features on federal lands in the West and elsewhere. New names for nearly 650 places bearing the offensive word “squaw” include the mundane, peculiar and Indigenous terms whose meaning at a glance will elude those unfamiliar with Native languages. “It is well past time for derogatory names to be removed and tribes to be included in the conversation.” Haaland in November declared the term derogatory and ordered members of the Board on Geographic Names, the Interior Department panel that oversees uniform naming of places in the U.S., and others to come up with alternatives. While the offensive term in question, identified as “sq___” by the Interior Department on Thursday, has met wide scorn in the U.S. only somewhat recently, changing place names in response to broadening opposition to racism has long precedent. The term originated in the Algonquin language and may have once simply meant “woman.” But over time, the word morphed into a misogynist and racist term to disparage Indigenous women, experts say.