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No more ‘squaw’ names

US Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has declared ‘‘squaw’’ a derogatory term, and says she is taking steps to replace derogatory placenames across the country. Haaland, the first Native American to lead a cabinet agency, has ordered a federal panel tasked with naming geographic places to eliminate racist terms from federal use. A database maintained by the US Board on Geographic Names shows there are more than 650 federal sites with names that contain ‘‘squaw’’, which has been used as a slur for Indigenous women. In the 1960s and 1970s, the board took action to eliminate the use of derogatory terms for Black and Japanese people. In California, the Squaw Valley Ski Resort changed its name earlier this year. Colorado’s advisory naming panel has recommended renaming Squaw Mountain, near Denver, in honour of a Native American woman who acted as a translator for tribes and white settlers in the 19th century.

World

en-nz

2021-11-21T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-11-21T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://stuff.pressreader.com/article/283038352802186

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