What's in a name: Use of slur in 31 state features to be renamed

Aug. 28—TRAVERSE CITY — The word "squaw" in the English language is getting a closer look, as are places with the word in its name.

The word is derived from the Algonquin language, and refers to "woman, or young girl," but the context of the word has been skewed by colonial use as a term to disparage Indigenous women.

Place names containing the word are numerous throughout the United States. White settlers, mostly in the 18th and 19th centuries, used it to name many places in the state. In Michigan, it appears in the names of 13 lakes, 10 streams, three canals, two islands, an Upper Peninsula cape, an Alpena County bay and a Lake Superior beach, a total of 35 times, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Thirty-one of those are listed under the USGS' Candidate Names List, as part of the directive signed by the U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in 2021 that declares "sq—w" a derogatory term against Indigenous women.

New names will be based on a list of suggestions provided to the board by the U.S. Geological Survey, with Tribal consultation and public feedback as part of the process.

Experts have said the earliest historical references to "sq—w" support a non-offensive meaning of it, but there are also several literary and historical instances of it being used in a derogatory or sexually connotative way. Today it is considered by many Native American people as "offensive, racist, and misogynistic," said Heather Bruegl, descendant of Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians and citizen of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin.

"Historically and contemporarily, the name has been used by European-Americans as a derogatory word used against Indigenous women," Bruegl said.

As a historian, and Indigenous consultant, much of Bruegl's research and work on American history cover the legacies of colonization and indigeneity, such as Indian Residential Boarding Schools, and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and 2-Spirits.

Violence against Native Americans is rooted in history, and persists through the continued portrayal of Native Americans, with the use of slurs in place names. Bruegl said Native American bodies — especially Native women and 2-Spirits' — are used how "white-America sees fit."

"Society looks past us," Bruegl said. "And it's never been appropriate, but white hands have always dictated us and spoke for us."

"Squaw Bay" in Thunder Bay of Alpena County is not a name of Native American origin, according to author Oliver D.D's 1903 publication, "A Centennial History of Alpena County, Michigan."

In the winter of 1850, a close encounter between a lumberman and the daughter of Chief Michekeewis inspired the name for the inland bay, according to the text. Before colonizers, the Anishinaabek called Thunder Bay, "Animikii-wiikwedong," derived from traditional knowledge that the waters of this bay were peculiarly affected by electrical storms.

Historical texts also state centuries before what is now Alpena County, the Anishinaabek (Odawa, Ojibwa, and Bodewadmi) made their homes along the shores of Lake Huron. Several villages were located near the mouth of Thunder Bay River, on the present site of Alpena, Flat Rock, now known as North Point, and on Devil River at the present site of Ossineke.

Waganakising Odawa elder of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians Andrea Pierce said that history is important and that, "we have the right to determine how we are perceived."

Pierce is the chair and founder of the Anishinaabek Caucus of the Michigan Democratic Party, and said that when Native Americans have spoken out in the past against derogatory or offensive words, the issue was ignored.

The s-word targets Native American women that "have been highly sexualized and abused for generations."

"This type of racism needs to stop," Pierce said. "There needs to be change."

Currently, the Department of Natural Resources is "reviewing all the named assets under our control for racial, ethnic and cultural sensitivity," said Ed Golder, DNR public information officer.

Some of those names may be changed based on the review, but it is not complete yet, Golder said.

As part of the process, the U.S. Geological Survey came up with five candidate names for each feature.

"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," Haaland said in a statement.

The Interior Department noted in a released statement, that Haaland is following the same path previously taken by her predecessors and the Board on Geographic Names, when they recognized that a word was widely recognized as being pejorative or derogatory.

Over the past two decades, the board has received 261 proposals to replace geographic features with sq—w in the name, according to the Interior Department.

The process for changing U.S. place names can take years, and federal officials said there are currently hundreds of proposed name changes pending before the board.

On the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Aug. 9, Haaland announced the members of the Advisory Committee on Reconciliation in Place Names. The members of the panel will identify and recommend changes to offensive place names across the nation and report directly to the Department of the Interior.

Pokagon Band of the Potawatomi Nation citizen and elder, Julie Dye was recently appointed to the panel that calls for input from the general public and sovereign nations on replacement names.

Many generations of Native American women, "myself included, have been on the receiving end of the s-word as a racially charged insult," said Dye.

For more than 20 years, Dye has been involved in racial and social justice in her community, and the state as an advocate for the removal of sq—w in names of organizations, and local place names in her community.

She serves as a board director for Eliminating Racism & Creating/Celebrating Equity (ERACCE), secretary for the Anishinaabek Caucus of the Democratic Party, and member of the Michigan Coalition Against Racism in Sports & Media.

Dye said the word sq—w should be banned from all public places and uses because its contribution to crisis of sexual violence against Native women today. Michigan lawmakers need to be urged to follow the federal lead and "do the right thing to reverse this institutional racist practice and visibility of the word," Dye said.

Several states have passed laws mandating the erasure of the slur from nonfederal sites, including Oregon, Maine, Montana and Minnesota— Michigan has not.

Whether the state will take the same actions as others, Bobby Leddy, communications director for Governor Gretchen Whitmer's office, said they would only speak directly on the matter "if it is brought up in the legislature."

State Senator Jeff Irwin agreed the issue of the s-word used for place names in the state should be addressed legislatively. Irwin said that he personally will look into how something like the federal ruling can be passed in Michigan as well.

"(It) should never have been used to name our rivers, lakes and roads, and renaming these places is the only appropriate thing to do. I'm very glad that the Department of the Interior is taking on this issue," Irwin said.

Michigan Representative Sue Allor was unable to be reached for comment on the change of Sq—w Bay in her district.