- January 13, 2023
- Posted by: Stratford Team
- Category: Economy
The U.S. Department of the Interior announced Thursday that it has given new names to five places that previously included a racist term for a Native American woman.
The renamed sites are in California, North Dakota, Tennessee and Texas, completing a yearlong process to remove the historically offensive word “squaw” from geographic names across the country.
“Words matter, particularly in our work to ensure our nation’s public lands and waters are accessible and welcoming to people of all backgrounds,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement. She called the word “harmful.”
Haaland, who took office in 2021, is the first Native American to lead a Cabinet agency.
In September, the Interior Department announced its final vote on proposals to change the names of nearly 650 sites that contained the word. The agency conducted an additional review of seven locations, all of which were considered unincorporated populated places. Five of…
