Thirteen New Mexico sites renamed to purge derogatory word

Sep. 18—People will see a change in the familiar name of a river, peak, valley or other natural feature if it contains "squaw," a word Indigenous women have long considered demeaning but was accepted in mainstream white culture until recently.

Roughly 650 geographic features on public, private and tribal lands will be renamed, including 13 sites in New Mexico.

At the behest of U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the agency's Board on Geographic Names spent months combing through suggested replacement names and last week approved the ones to use.

In New Mexico, examples of renaming include Squaw Creek in Grant County to Mason Creek; Squaw Tit in Sierra County to Grandview Peak; and Squaw Peak in Sandoval County to Tamayameh Kah Sta Mah.

Haaland, the first Indigenous woman to lead the agency, has called the change long overdue and said it would help make public lands, which belong to all Americans, more inviting to everyone, regardless of their heritage.

Tribal and racial justice advocates spoke of the renaming as an important symbolic change that signals a cultural and political shift.

"I think it's a powerful statement," said Corrine Sanchez, executive director of Tewa Women United. 'We know that there is power in naming. It's powerful for our young people to witness this — it's transformative."

Sanchez said she's encouraged this uplifting change is happening when racial divisiveness is surging and certain leaders want to sanitize how Indigenous people were oppressed in the past.

"Other people continue to make decisions that dehumanize and minimize and erase our experiences," Sanchez said. "So it's a small step but a huge step."

Moving swiftly

The agency is purging "squaw" from all federal use in response to Haaland declaring the word derogatory last year. References to the word will be "sq___" in official documents and communications.

The U.S. Geological Survey identified the term in the names of natural features on public and private lands in about three dozen states and mapped the places to be renamed.

The name changes will be limited to federal maps and databases, which means landowners — whether private, state or local governments — can keep their signs and maps with the derogatory term, although the hope is they will follow the federal government's lead, USGS spokeswoman Rachel Pawlitz wrote in an email.

She noted that USGS siting is influential with apps such as Google Maps.

The renaming doesn't apply to cultural or human-made features such as roads, shopping centers, churches, schools, airports and resorts, with very few exceptions, Interior Department spokesman Giovanni Rocco wrote in an email.

Property owners, state and local leaders and citizens must decide whether to rename these structures and, if so, what the new names should be.

Still, purging "squaw" from natural features ties into the larger effort in states and communities across the nation to remove objectionable names and monuments from public spaces, a movement welcomed by ethnic groups who say it addresses a layer of systemic racism.

One expert, who studies the relationship between people and places, said this policy change was carried out with remarkable speed and resolve compared to what often happens with efforts to replace derogatory names in public sites.

"A lot of those proposals and a lot of those demands for renaming — they peter out," said Derek Alderman, a cultural geography professor at the University of Tennessee. "In a lot of cases, we don't see substantial change because a lot of leaders wait for the issue to die out."

Alderman sits on the newly formed federal advisory committee on reconciliation of place names, made up of scholars, tribal leaders and government officials.

Haaland, a former member of Congress from New Mexico, ordered this committee established to look into a broader scope of names that disparage race, sexual identity and religion.

For example, one site in New Mexico contains "redman" in the name, and another has "Chinaman."

The federal panel will create a plan to solicit suggested name changes from tribes and other minority communities as well as government officials and the general public.

Alderman said it's vital to address derisive place names, and not just because they offend a particular group of people. These names offer a window into our society, he said.

"Those names are some of the ways we learn about history," Alderman said. "They're ways that we learn about who matters, historically and socially." Who is valued and who is not."

Sanchez said it's no coincidence the term "squaw" — which many people have long complained time was demeaning — is finally being removed under an Indigenous woman, reflecting a shift in power dynamics.

"Representation matters," she said.

Going beyond names

In Santa Fe, city officials have put together a commission to study controversial monuments as well as streets, parks and other places that have objectionable names.

The effort mostly centers on historic figures such as Juan de Oñate, Kit Carson and Diego de Vargas, whom some view as trailblazing pioneers and others see as conquerors who used brutal tactics against Indigenous people.

The commission recently compiled a 138-page report with general recommendations on how the city should work with the public to decide what to do about the controversial monuments.

This effort was more like Alderman described in moving too slowly with too little clear direction for many people's liking.

The report suggested the city work to correct the "tricultural myth" of Indigenous, Hispanic and white people living in harmony through most of New Mexico's history, when their current clash over the monuments shows that's not the case.

Fatima van Hattum, co-coordinator for NMWomen.org., said the state's multicultural complexity is why dialogue is necessary when renaming schools, streets, parks and other common areas.

In those instances, van Hattum said, "you can't just a change a name. That doesn't necessarily heal a community [unless] there's a conversation around it."

But sometimes it's necessary for a government leader like Haaland to make a top-down decision to get rid of a derogatory name, she said, noting that in other parts of the country, this was done with Confederate generals and slave owners.

Like Sanchez, she thinks removing the word "squaw" from the names of natural features was a significant step, though only a step.

"When someone is called some thing, racism has paved the way for violence," van Hattum said, quoting a book she read on raciolinguistics. "When you talk about the importance of language, the symbolism ... reflects a material reality."

Places retained certain derogatory words to reinforce the colonialism that took hold, so changing the name shifts the power dynamic, van Hattum said, but added that progress can't stop there.

Both she and Sanchez, who serve on Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's racial justice advisory council, say they recommended researching state and local sites that have objectionable names and work to change them. But they've received no response from officials.

Both agree the current renaming must be accompanied by policy changes to improve historic tribal inequities.

Sanchez said everyone who cares must stay vigilant, because the next interior secretary can undo this and other changes Haaland is making.

"This is a victory. It's huge, but it's also fragile," Sanchez said.