The U.S. looks to replace a derogatory name used hundreds of times on federal lands

The Department of the Interior is moving forward with plans to remove a name the department declared to be derogatory from federal lands.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland formed a task force and declared the word “squaw” derogatory in November 2021. Now, the department is seeking public comment on name replacements for the more than 660 geographic features that contain the word.

Historically, the term has been used as an “an offensive ethnic, racial, and sexist slur, particularly for Indigenous women,” the department noted. The term originated from the Algonquian word for “woman,” but its meanings has been skewed for centuries by white people.