US renames hills and valleys to remove term considered racist by indigenous people

The US Department of the Interior announced on Thursday (12) that it had renamed five places whose names included the racist term “squaw” or “Redskin wife”, used to refer pejoratively to indigenous women.

“Words matter, especially in our work, which seeks to ensure that public places are accessible and welcoming to people of all ethnicities,” said Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, in a note published on the folder’s website — the text does not use the term racist not once, replacing it with “sq__”.

Appointed by Joe Biden, Haaland is the first indigenous person in the country’s history to lead the department, which also handles issues related to the approximately 1.9 million members of Native American peoples. Last September, her management had already announced the renaming of another 650 places across the country whose names were considered racist for indigenous people.

Haaland, by the way, was a persistent critic of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro (PL), and attended the inauguration of his successor, Lula (PT), this month. She plays a central role in implementing Biden’s environmental and climate agenda.

The locations renamed this Thursday are in the states of California, Texas, Tennessee and North Dakota. In California, Squaw Hill and Squaw Valley became Loybas Hill and Yokuts Valley, respectively — the terms can be translated as “young lady’s hill” and “people’s valley”, respectively. In Texas, Squaw Mountain became Lynn Creek, while in Tennessee, Squawberry was renamed Partrigeberry.

Finally, in North Dakota, “Squaw Gap” became “Homesteaders Gap”. The change has divided opinions in the local community, according to the AP news agency. While indigenous Mark Fox, chief of the Mandan Nation, Hidatsa and Arikara, praised her, adding that she was long-awaited, Joel Brown, a member of a local McKenzie County council, said he and many of the area’s inhabitants were unhappy. He, who is Caucasian, said the local community advocated as little federal interference as possible because he felt the government in general “has no sense of how the economy and culture works around here.”

This isn’t the first time the Department of the Interior has renamed places whose names include terms it considers racist. As early as the 1960s, he ordered the renaming of areas that used words offensive to blacks and Japanese.

Last year alone, authorities renamed 28 areas in the state of Wisconsin to remove “squaw”. A committee even recommended renaming a mountain in Colorado whose name references the massacre of more than 200 indigenous Arapaho and Cheyenne peoples in the 19th century, and the federal government has renamed hundreds of peaks, lakes, streams and other landforms whose designations contain racist terms. or misogynists.