Arizona could be a primary target when federal officials meet with tribes to talk about possible new names for places that currently contain a slur against Native American women.
With 67 locations that have the word “squaw” in their name, Arizona ranks third among 37 states in a list compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey, trailing only California, with 85, and Idaho, with 72.
Those are some of the 664 places across the US that will be the subject of Interior Department virtual consultation sessions with tribes early this week, to consider names that could replace the term that is now considered derogatory.
In Arizona, the locations are in every county but Pima and sit on federal, state, private and tribal lands, including 11 on the Navajo, Fort Apache, San Carlos and Fort Mojave reservations.
“I agree with initiatives to change the names of places that include disparaging racially charged and gendered slurs,” Coconino County Supervisor Lena Fowler said in an emailed statement. “This corrective action of removing all offensive place names is an important step in honoring the humanity of Native American people still here today.” (Lena Fowler, right)
The push to update the names began in November, when Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American to run a Cabinet agency, signed an order declaring the word a derogatory term. The order directed the USGS Board on Geographic Names to begin identifying geographic places that had the word in their names and proposing at least five possible replacement names for each.
Even though no one in Greenlee County knows how a stream there came to have the name, County Administrator Derek Rapier said officials there support a change.
“Regardless of the naming history, such monikers have no place in a diverse society that values the contributions of all individuals and groups and Greenlee County is supportive of name changes that reflect this shared respect,” Rapier said in an email.