Squaw

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The English word squaw is an ethnic and sexual slur,^[1][2][3][4] historically used for Indigenous North American women.^[1][5] Contemporary use of the term, especially by non-Natives, is considered offensive, derogatory, misogynist, and racist.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]}

The word is not used among Native American, First Nations, Inuit, or Métis peoples.^[2][3][4][5] While a similar morpheme (smallest linguistic unit of meaning) is found within some longer words in some of the Eastern Algonquian languages,^[8] these languages only make up a small minority of the languages spoken in the hundreds of Indigenous communities affected by this slur.^[9] Even in Algonquian, the related word-fragments used are not the English-language slur, but small components of longer, Algonquian words that contain more than one morpheme.^[8]

Current status

The term squaw is considered universally offensive by Indigenous groups in America and the First Nations due to its use for hundreds of years in a derogatory context,^[3] and due to usage that demeans Native American women, ranging from condescending images (e.g., picture postcards depicting "Indian squaw and papoose") to racialized epithets.^[10][11] Alma Garcia has written, "It treats non-white women as if they were second-class citizens or exotic objects."^[10]

In November, 2021, the US Department of the Interior, helmed by Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo), declared squaw to be a derogatory and racist term and began formally removing the term from use on the federal level. Secretary Haaland announced the creation of a committee and process to review and replace the names of geographic features that contain the offensive term.^[1]

While some have studied the smaller fragments of Algonquian words that might be related to the word, no matter the linguistic origins, many Native women feel that any "reclamation" efforts would only apply to the small percentage of Native women from the Algonquian-language groups, and not to the vast majority of Native women who feel degraded by the term.^[4][9] Indigenous women who have addressed the history and depth of this slur state that this degrading usage is now too long, and too painful, for it to ever take on a positive meaning among Indigenous women or Indigenous communities as a whole.^[2][5][4] In 2015, Jodi Lynn Maracle (Mohawk) and Agnes Williams (Seneca) petitioned the Buffalo Common Council to change the name of Squaw Island to Deyowenoguhdoh.^[5] Seneca Nation President Maurice John Sr., and Chief G. Ava Hill of the Six Nations of the Grand River wrote letters petitioning for the name change as well, with Chief Hill writing,

The continued use and acceptance of the word 'Squaw' only perpetuates the idea that indigenous women and culture can be deemed as impure, sexually perverse, barbaric and dirty ... Please do eliminate the slur 'Squaw' from your community.^[5]

The Buffalo Common Council then voted unanimously to change the name to Unity Island.^[12]

Anti-racist groups have also worked to educate about, and encourage the elimination of, the slur. When asked why "it never used to bother Indian women to be called squaw," and "why now?" an American Indian Movement group responded:

Were American Indian women or people ever asked? Have you ever asked an American Indian woman, man, or child how they feel about [the "s" word]? (... it has always been used to insult American Indian women.) Through communication and education American Indian people have come to understand the derogatory meaning of the word. American Indian women claim the right to define ourselves as women and we reject the offensive term squaw.

— from the web page of the American Indian Movement, Southern California Chapter^[4]

Newer editions of dictionaries such as American Heritage, Merriam-Webster online dictionaries, and the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary now list squaw as "offensive", "often offensive", and "usually disparaging".^[13][14][15]

Etymology

Eastern Algonquian morphemes (word fragments) meaning "woman" which are found as components in longer words, and may have been transcribed into English, include the Massachusett language squa and a number of other variants. Some possibly related morphemes may include skwa, esqua, sqeh, skwe, que, kwa, ikwe, exkwew, xkwe .^{[8][better source needed][16][9]}

In the first published report of Indigenous American languages in English, A Key into the Language of America, written in 1643, Puritan Minister Roger Williams wrote his impressions of the Narragansett language. However, his book is not a document by a native speaker of the Narragansett language, but rather the impressions of a colonist, and what he believed people were saying. Williams noted morphemes that he considered to be related to "squaw" and provided the definitions he felt fit them, as a learner, including: squaw ("woman"), squawsuck ("women"), keegsquaw ("virgin or maid"), segousquaw ("widower"), and squausnit ("woman's god").^[17]

Derogatory and historical usage

"Chippeway Squaw [sic] and Child", 1842 print

Poster for the play The Squaw Man (1905); the term refers to a white man married to a Native woman.

In most colonial texts squaw was used as a general word for Indigenous women. It also became a derogatory adjective used against some men, in "squaw man," meaning either "a man who does woman's work" (similar to other languages) or "a white man married to an Indian woman and living with her people".^[18] Colville / Okanagan author Mourning Dove, in her 1927 novel, Cogewea, the Half-Blood had one of her characters say,

If I was to marry a white man and he would dare call me a 'squaw'—as an epithet with the sarcasm that we know so well—I believe that I would feel like killing him. ^[19]

Science Fiction author Isaac Asimov, in his novel Pebble in the Sky (1950), wrote that science-fictional natives of other planets would use slurs against natives of Earth, such as, "Earthie-squaw".^[20]

LaDonna Harris (Comanche), when speaking about empowering Native American schoolchildren in the 1960s at Ponca City, Oklahoma, recounted:

We tried to find out what the children found painful about school [causing a very high dropout rate]. (...) The children said that they felt humiliated almost every day by teachers calling them "squaws" and using all those other old horrible terms.^[21]

Sexual references

Painting by Alfred Jacob Miller, c. 1859, titled "Bourgeois W—r, and His Squaw" [sic]

Advertisement for Just Squaw [sic], a 1919 silent film.

An early comment in which squaw appears to have a sexual meaning is from the Canadian writer E. Pauline Johnson, who was of Mohawk heritage, but spent little time in that culture as an adult.^[22] She wrote about the title character in An Algonquin Maiden by G. Mercer Adam and A. Ethelwyn Wetherald:

Poor little Wanda! not only is she non-descript and ill-starred, but as usual the authors take away her love, her life, and last and most terrible of all, reputation; for they permit a crowd of men-friends of the hero to call her a "squaw" and neither hero nor authors deny that she is a squaw. It is almost too sad when so much prejudice exists against the Indians, that any one should write up an Indian heroine with such glaring accusations against her virtue, and no contradictory statements from either writer, hero or circumstance.^[23]

Explicit statements that squaw came from a word meaning "female genitals" gained currency in the 1970s. Perhaps the first example was in Sanders and Peek (1973):

That curious concept of 'squaw', the enslaved, demeaned, voiceless childbearer, existed and exists only in the mind of the non-Native American and is probably a French corruption of the Iroquois word otsiskwa [also spelled ojiskwa] meaning 'female sexual parts', a word almost clinical both denotatively and connotatively. The corruption suggests nothing about the Native American's attitude toward women; it does indicate the wasichu's [white man's^[24]] view of Native American women in particular if not all women in general.^[25]

First usage of the term

One of the earliest appearances of the term in print is "the squa sachim, or Massachusetts queen" in the colonial booklet Mourt's Relation (1622), one of the first chronicles of the Plymouth Colony written by European colonists.^[26]

American usage in the 19th century

Records of the picture by Alfred Jacob Miller document mid-19th century usage of the term in the United States. The art collection's on-line caption for this picture explains that "Bourgeois W----r" names an individual fur trader, abbreviated in the literary convention of the period (1858). The picture was commissioned at that date and is based on sketches made in Wyoming in 1837, "a unique record of the closing years of the western fur trade. . . . The term 'Bourgeois' is givien [sic] in the mountains to one who has a body of trappers placed under his immediate command. Capt. W----r, being trustworthy and intelligent, received an appointment of this kind . . . and with his men had many battles with the Indians.... The Squaw's [sic] station in travelling is at a considerable distance in the rear of her liege lord, and never at the side of him. W----r had the kindness to present the writer a dozen pair of moccasins worked by this squaw [sic] - richly embroidered on the instep with colored porcupine quills."^[27]

Efforts to rename placenames and terms

In November 2021, the US Department of the Interior declared squaw to be a derogatory term and began formally removing the term from use on the federal level, with Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) announcing the creation of a committee and process to review and replace derogatory names of geographic features.^[1] In a press release, Secretary Haaland announced,

Racist terms have no place in our vernacular or on our federal lands. 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. Today’s actions will accelerate an important process to reconcile derogatory place names and mark a significant step in honoring the ancestors who have stewarded our lands since time immemorial.^[1]

This follows decades of work by Indigenous activists, both locally and in more general educational efforts, to rename the locations across North America that have contained the slur, as well as to eliminate the slur from the lexicon in general.^[4][28][29]

• The Squaw Rapids Dam on the Saskatchewan River was renamed the E.B. Campbell Dam in 1988.
• The Montana Legislature created an advisory group in 1999 to replace the word squaw in local place names and required any replacement of a sign to bear the new name.^[30]
• The Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission and the Maine Legislature collaborated in 2000 to pass a law eliminating the words squaw and squa from all of the state's waterways, islands, and mountains. Some of those sites have been renamed with the word moose; others, in a nod to Wabanaki language-recovery efforts, are now being given new place-appropriate names in the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy languages.^[31]
• The American Ornithologists' Union changed the official American English name of the duck Clangula hyemalis from oldsquaw to the long-standing British name long-tailed duck, because of wildlife biologists' concerns about cooperation with Native Americans involved in conservation efforts, and for standardization.^[32]
• Squaw Peak in Phoenix, Arizona, was renamed Piestewa Peak in 2003 to honor the Iraq War casualty Pfc. Lori Piestewa, the first Native American woman to die in combat for the US.
• Members of Coeur d'Alene Tribe in Idaho called for the removal of the word squaw from the names of 13 locations in that state in October 2006. Many tribal members reportedly believe the "woman's genitals" etymology.^[33]
• The British Columbian portion of a tributary of the Tatshenshini River was officially renamed Dollis Creek by the BC Geographical Names Office on January 15, 2008.^[34] The name Squaw Creek had been previously rescinded on December 8, 2000.
• Frog Woman Rock was the name chosen to honor the cultural heritage of the Pomo peoples of the region between Hopland and Cloverdale in the Russian River canyon. The State Office of Historic Preservation updated the name of the California Historical Landmark, formerly called Squaw Rock, in 2011.
• After being petitioned by members of the Seneca Nation of New York, the Buffalo Common Council voted in 2015 to change the name of the island formerly called Squaw Island to Unity Island (Deyowenoguhdoh in the Seneca language).^[5]
• An application was made to the Nova Scotia Geographic Information Service in late 2016 to rename Squaw Island, Cape Negro, Cape Negro Island and Negro Harbour in Shelburne County.^[35]
• The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service renamed the Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge in Missouri to Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge in 2017.
• The city of Provo, Utah, announced in October 2017 that it would be working alongside a local citizens' initiative to consider renaming Squaw Peak, though final authority for placenames rests with state and federal officials.^[36]
• Squaw Ridge in Sierra Nevada was formally renamed Hungalelti Ridge in September 2018, after a proposal by the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California.^[37]
• Saskatchewan's Killsquaw Lake — the site of a 19th century massacre of a group of Cree women — was renamed Kikiskitotawânawak Iskêwak on November 20, 2018. The new name means "we honour the women" in Cree. The renaming effort was led by Indigenous lawyer Kellie Wuttunee in consultation with Cree elders and community leaders. "To properly respect and honour First Nations women, we can no longer have degrading geographic names in Saskatchewan. ... Even if unintentional, the previous name was harmful. By changing the name, we are giving a voice to the ones who are silenced," said Wuttunee, who has worked on missing and murdered Indigenous women cases. "Names are powerful. They inform our identity."^[38]
• After similar rumours over the years, on August 20, 2020 it was reported that Squaw's Tit near Canmore, Alberta would be renamed to avoid racist and misogynistic naming. Talks with Stoney Nakoda to find a culturally appropriate name and a request to support the initiative were brought to the Municipal District of Bighorn in September of 2020.^[39] on September 29, 2020 the peak was officially renamed to Anû Kathâ Îpa, meaning "Bald Eagle's Peak" in the Stoney Nakoda language.^[40]
• Palisades Tahoe was the new name of Squaw Valley Ski Resort as of September 13, 2021.^[41] The decision was announced after consulting with the local Washoe Tribe and extensive research into the etymology and history of the term squaw.^[42]
• Orange Cove is an agricultural community located along the eastern foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, incorporated in 1948 and has a population of 9,078. On January 27, 2021 the City Council deferred a proposal seeking to change the name of the Squaw Valley area of Fresno County to “Nim Valley”, to allow the city to seek more community input.^[43]

The term persists in the officially sanctioned names of several municipalities, such as Squaw Grove Township, Illinois and Squaw Township, Iowa.^[44][45]

As of November 2018, Squaw Valley (Oregon), Squaw Valley (Fresno County, California), Squaw Peak Inn, Squaw Lake (California), Squaw Lake (Minnesota), Squaw Lake (New York), Squaw Grove Township (DeKalb County, Illinois), Squaw Mountain Ranch, Squaw Valley Academy, Squaw Canyon Oil Field, Squaw Cap (New Brunswick), Squaw Creek Southern Railroad, Squaw Gap (North Dakota), and Squaw Creek (Payette River), to name a few, remain unchanged.

In 2020, the owner of Big Squaw Mountain Resort near Greenville, Maine refused to consider changing the resort's name, even though its namesake was changed to Big Moose Mountain following the passage of a statewide law banning the term in names of geographical features.^[46]

See also

• Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
• Indigenous feminism
• Native American feminism
• Nigger
• Stereotypes of Native Americans

Notes

References

Further reading

• Laurent, Chief Joseph. 1884. New Familiar Abenakis and English Dialogues. Quebec, Leger Brousseau. Retrieved Nov. 16, 2007.
• Masta, Henry Lorne. 1932. Abenaki Indian Legends, Grammar and Place Names. Odanak, P.Q., Canada.
• Mihesuah, Devon Abbott. 2003. Indigenous American Women: Decolonization, Empowerment, Activism. University of Nebraska Press.

External links

• Around Ethnic Slurs: Squaw
• SQUAW – Facts on the Eradication of the "S" Word at Teach Respect Not Racism – Western North Carolina Citizens For An End To Institutional Bigotry
• Squelching the S-Word at Blue Corn Comics, collection of articles and correspondence on topic