Background Info on Minnesota law banning the 's' word
feather eaglerock
NEWS RELEASE FROM NORTH CENTRAL MINNESOTA NATIVE AMERICAN VETERANS OUTREACH
AND RESOURCE CENTER
Some background information on the Minnesota Law banning the "s" word from
geographic features in the state:
Cass Lake-Bena High School Name Change Committee
News Release
The efforts of a group of Cass Lake-Bena High School students were
successful on February 7, 1995, when the Cass County Commissioners agreed
to change the name of Squaw Point to Oak Point.
Two students from the school, Angelene Losh and Dawn Litzau, began
a campaign in February 1994 to change the names of Squaw Point and Squaw
Lake, which are located on the Leech Lake Reservation. In letters to their
congressmen, tribal officials, and newspapers they explained why the term
is offensive and derogatory to Native American women.
At the high school, they circulated a petition for students to
sign. After a positive response from students, legislators and tribal
officials, the Name Change Committee was formed at the Cass Lake-Bena High
School. Minnesota State Representative, Tony Kinkel, responded with a
letter of support and Minnesota State Senator Harold Finn sent a copy of
the state laws regarding changing place names and offered his help in
sponsoring legislation for a statewide ban. The Cass Lake-Bena High School
Board and the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council all passed resolutions of
support. A petition to ban the word squaw was circulated at the National
Indian Education Conference in St. Paul, Minnesota in October, 1994. The
petition gathered 300 signatures.
The Name Change Committee educated the elementary students about
the derogatory meaning of the word squaw, and encouraged the students to
stop using the word. They also put up a bulletin board in the school to
create an awareness of this demeaning term.
Angelene Losh who live at Oak Point, obtained the necessary
signatures of voters from that area to change the name. The students then
formally requested a public hearing with the Cass County Commissioners and
held a fundraiser to pay for expenses of the hearing. At the public
hearing, the County Commissioners voted unanimously to change the name from
Squaw Point to Oak Point.
Enlisting the support of Minnesota Senator Finn (DFL - Cass Lake),
the committee began its efforts to eliminate the word statewide. Locations
which used the word were identified by the Minnesota DNR (Department of
Natural Resources). Sen. Finn sponsored a bill to eliminate the word from
all geographic locations by July 31, 1996. After testimony by Dawn, Angie,
and Muriel Litzau (advisor) before a Senate Committee and a House
Committee, the full Senate and the full House, both voted overwhelmingly
in support of the bill. The Law states that on or before July 31, 1996,
the commissioner of natural resources shall change each name of a
geographic feature in the state that contains the word "squaw" to another
name that does not use this word. The commissioner shall select the new
name in cooperation with the county boards of the counties in which the
feature is located and with their approval. It was signed into law by
Governor Arne Carlson on April 18, 1995. As of September 1 1996, 16 out of
19 geographic place names in Minnesota have been changed. Two counties
have failed to comply with the law.
The Name Change Committee has also met with the Squaw Lake Village
Council to express their concerns and are concentrating their efforts to
encourage the town to change the offensive name, which is located within
the boundaries of the Leech Lake Reservation, and the only town in
Minnesota to have this name. One of our goals is to encourage the
residents of this village to change the name of their town, which in turn
will have an impact on the elementary school located there.
We have attended a school board meeting, village council and the
"S" Lake Name Change Committee meetings. The name of the lake in that
community was changed to "Natures Lakes" in compliance with the State Law.
Two schools in our area, Pequot Lakes and Grand Rapids have
changed their mascot name of "Indians" in the past year. There was
resistance toward the change at Pequot Lakes. A group of student
representatives from Pequot Lakes met with Cass Lake-Bena School Name
Change Committee. Later in the year, they invited the Cass Lake-Bena High
School Name Change Committee to speak at a student assembly at their high
school. Shortly after the presentation, their School Board voted to change
the mascot name.
We continue to strive for our goal of eliminating the word "squaw"
in place names throughout the United States. Recently, we have been
contacted by the New York Times, by CBS public radio, by ABC and Channel 1
News. We have been in contact with two young native women in Arizona who
are striving to change the offensive name. We continue to educate people
through news articles, letters, interviews, and conferences which have an
impact nationwide.
**************
For more information about the efforts and activities of the Name Change
Committee, or to offer your support and encouragement to these young people
contact:
Cass Lake-Bena High School Name Change Committee
Rte. 3 Box 699
Cass Lake, Minnesota 56633
Fax # 218-335-7649
Earl Fenner
Yhe term "Squaw" is from the Nantick language.
Squa - female, one of womankind, a female.
squaiyeyao - she is female
nunksqua - a girl
squaas - woman, as denoting a living creature
squaus - a woman
squasese - a little girl
Obviously, somebody thinks it means something vulgar...or so AIM would
lead you to believe. There are a whole lot of old people who use this
term, squaw, when referring to their wives / companions, all members of
a wide variety of tribes.
It seems somebody has too much time on their hands to even call this an
issue.
Dave Miller
In message <325958...@holli.com> - Earl Fenner <efe...@holli.com>Mon, 07
Oct 1996 14:22:26 -0500 writes:
:>
:>Yhe term "Squaw" is from the Nantick language.
Yep. I'm expecting a lawsuit any day now to stop the use of the
phrase" ..... and the home of the BRAVE" in our National Anthem.
After all, there must be at least ONE native who finds that
"offensive". Sheeeeeeesh!
Dave
______________________________________________________________
Dave Miller Firefighter, EMT-IV
Marysville, WA USA Yamaha TW-200 Rider
da...@whidbey.net My account, my opinion!
______________________________________________________________
Adonaset Don Fort
of the home of the BRAVE even awarded medals of dishonor for their
BRAVEry
Adonaset
Lnewolf
Earl Fenner <efe...@holli.com> wrote:
>Yhe term "Squaw" is from the Nantick language.
>Squa - female, one of womankind, a female.
>squaiyeyao - she is female
>nunksqua - a girl
>squaas - woman, as denoting a living creature
>squaus - a woman
>squasese - a little girl
>Obviously, somebody thinks it means something vulgar...or so AIM would
>lead you to believe. There are a whole lot of old people who use this
>term, squaw, when referring to their wives / companions, all members of
>a wide variety of tribes.
>It seems somebody has too much time on their hands to even call this an
>issue.
Native Americans hold women in very high regard. To them this could
be considered an insult. This aside, Whites throughout history have
used this term in a derogatory manner. I personally do not like it
either.
LneWolf
Lance Foster
Squaw did originally come from a native language, as did papoose. And
somehow whites got into the use of two terms from specific native languages
(repeat after me: "there is no 'Indian language'"), and through repeated use
and derogatory context, changed innocent use of a perfectly fine word into
something ugly.
Words are living things. They change. Buck is a word that means male
animal, and was applied to native and black males to indicate they were not
quite human. Words change. Fag in British use was a cigarette; when a
person is tired, sometimes they may say, as has a Nigerian I know, "I am
fagged." Means something entirely different in AMerican English. The word
gay originally meant happy and we ourselves in this generation have seen its
meaning change in EVERYDAY USE. Words change.
My Grandma, Ioway Indian to the core and brought up on the reservation in
Kansas, used to cook for me something she called "squawbread." Of course I
am older, 36, and this was in the early 1960s before AIM and political
awareness. I was surprised when I was a kid and we moved to MOntana when I
found the Indians there called it frybread. In fact my 80-year old Grandma
still calls it squawbread. Words, their meaning, their use change.
My girlfriend is native Hawaiian and she tells me about Hawaiian words and
their misapplication by non-Hawaiians.
The upshot of the squaw (and papoose etc) things is..(repeat after
me)..words change. And context and assumptions shape them. While squaw
originally of itself is a good word, and people like my Grandma (who gets
really angry when people call her a squaw..keep the knives away from her)
may still use it in certain contexts, it is insulting to use squaw to refer
to an Indian woman.
If the words "Indian woman" are not romantic enough for people, at least
they could learn the local native word for woman. In Iowa for instance, the
word for woman is hinageh (hih-NAH-geh). Currently we are trying to change
the local creek's name from Squaw Creek to Hinageh Creek.
Everything is a nonissue to those it does not affect. Call my Grandma a
squaw and I'll tell her to go rest and ask her to lend me her knife:-)
Lance
--
>><< >><< >><< >><< >><< >><< >><< >><< >><< >><< >><< >><< >><<
Lance M. Foster |>>>----------|> NATIVE NATIONS OF IOWA <|----------<<<
lfo...@iastate.edu | http://www.public.iastate.edu/~lfoster/homepage.html
>><< >><< >><< >><< >><< >><< >><< >><< >><< >><< >><< >><< >><<
Weasel Tracks
> Native Americans hold women in very high regard. To them this could
> be considered an insult. This aside, Whites throughout history have
> used this term in a derogatory manner. I personally do not like it
> either.
How would one then speak of the Squaw-Sachem of the Pennacook (I think she
was) in what's New Hampshire now? "Female Chief"? Doesn't seem to have the
same power.
The words was a normal word for women in Algonquian languages in New
England. I wonder if banning the word because of its inappropriate use to
demean Native women is the only way of dealing with this.
Dick Gregory, about thirty years ago, suggested that Africans in this
country officially adopt the word "nigger" as what they themselves prefer
to be called, taking the sting out of it. The idea didn't get much
acceptance, but it was an interesting consideration. People of the pagan
religions are trying to rehabilitate the word "witch", to make it mean
something positive.
But if Native women don't like the word, it's certainly their prerogative
to be called, or not be called, whatever they wish.
---Weasel Tracks