The Chronicles Of Grant County

The Official Use Of "Squaw" In Grant County

Squaw Creek (in the green circle) is one of the geographic features with this name in Grant County. (This topographical map was provided courtesy of the United States Geological Survey, 1911.)

Grant County includes at least two geographic features with names that have been deemed derogatory by the Federal government. Squaw Creek is a stream located in the far northeast section of Grant County. In the same section is the Squaw Creek Ridge Tank; this feature is located to the west of Route 61, north of Rocky Point. At least two times in the past, in advertisements by the Federal government in 1968 and 1970, "Squaw Unit" was the name for a section of the Gila National Forest.

In other counties in New Mexico, there are at least eleven additional geographic features that include this same five-letter derogatory name. Also, there are at least seven roadways bearing this derogatory name in local communities in the state; none of those streets is in Grant County.

All of these geographic features and roadways use a word that is considered a derogatory name for Native American women.

The current U S Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, has issued an order to have the United States Geological Survey (USGS) remove "squaw" from all official names for geographic features now in use by the Federal government. That five-letter word is considered extremely offensive to many people. While there has been debate through the years whether that word simply meant a female Native American, many have noted that the word has long been used as a vulgarity to describe a Native American woman.

The process is now underway to remove the official Federal use of this derogatory word throughout the country. According to the U S Department of the Interior, "several states have [already] passed legislation prohibiting the use of the word 'squaw' in place names, including Montana, Oregon, Maine, and Minnesota."

"Racist terms have no place in our vernacular or on our federal lands," said Secretary Haaland in a news statement dated November 21, 2021. "Our nation's lands and waters should be places to celebrate the outdoors and our shared cultural heritage – not to perpetuate the legacies of oppression. Today's actions will accelerate an important process to reconcile derogatory place names and mark a significant step in honoring the ancestors who have stewarded our lands since time immemorial."

As of January 21, 2022, the USGS listed hundreds of geographic features in the USA with this derogatory name. All will be renamed. The exact number of local roadways that bear this five-letter slur throughout the country is uncertain. Whether those streets will be renamed will be decided by local officials; the Federal decision to remove this derogatory name does not require local governmental jurisdictions to rename local roadways.

Discussions about removing this name from all geographic features in the USA have been ongoing for a number of years. In a document from 2017, the Board on Geographic Names of the USGS indicated that "Over the years, the DNC [Domestic Names Committee] has discussed adding the word 'Squaw' to the list of derogatory names; however, it was not added because a few Tribes do not consider the word offensive." As of January 22, 2022, the USGS has not yet indicated which Native American Nations had expressed that view at that time.

In her official profile, it was noted that Secretary Haaland "made history when she became the first Native American to serve as a cabinet secretary. She is a member of the Pueblo of Laguna and a 35th generation New Mexican. Secretary Haaland grew up in a military family; her father was a 30-year combat Marine who was awarded the Silver Star Medal for saving six lives in Vietnam, and her mother is a Navy veteran who served as a Federal employee for 25 years at the Bureau of Indian Affairs. As a military child, she attended 13 public schools before graduating from Highland High School in Albuquerque… She [was] one of the first Native American women to serve in [the U S] Congress."

The decision to remove "squaw" from all official names of geographic features means that there are now three words that the Federal government will not approve as names of geographic features in the USA. The other words are ones that are considered derogatory to Black people and to people with Japanese heritage. On July 27, 1962, Stewart Udall, then the U S Secretary of the Interior, began a full-scale effort to remove "n****r" as the name of any geographic feature in the USA. During 1963, the decision of Secretary Udall started to be fully implemented. On January 8, 1974, the Board on Domestic Geographic Names of the USGS made the decision to rename all of the official names of geographic features that bore the name "Jap".

It took years to remove all of the official names of geographic features that were deemed derogatory to Black people and to people with Japanese heritage.

To assist in the removal of the five-letter word derogatory to Native American women from all official Federal names for geographic features, the USGS has established a Task Force to focus specifically on this matter. "Local governments, State Names Authorities, Federal land management agencies, and Tribal Governments are invited to submit comments on any pending proposal to the Task Force during the public and/or Tribal comment periods," according to a news statement from the USGS issued on January 21, 2022. The Board on Geographic Names of the USGS will then make decisions regarding proposed replacement names for this five-letter derogatory word; this is anticipated to occur in the late Summer or early Fall. "Following that action, any interested party is welcome to submit a new proposal, via the…normal proposal process [of the Board on Geographic Names], to change the replacement name to a different name."

Deb Haaland is the U S Secretary of the Interior. (The photograph was provided courtesy of the U S Department of the Interior.)

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