Department of the Interior (DOI) Secretary Deb Haaland recently announced the department has established a process to review and replace derogatory names from federal lands, including the term “squaw.”
Haaland said, “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.”
Secretarial Order 3404 identifies “squaw” as derogatory and creates a task force to find replacement names for geographic names. DOI said the term has historically been used as “an offensive ethnic, racial, and sexist slur, particularly for Indigenous women,” and more than 650 federal land units contain the term.
