What’s in a name?

Opponents of the bill to remove the word “squaw” from Maine place names can make all manner of arguments about the intended use of the word, the economic effect if it is removed and the lack of its common use as an insult. But the issue for them is a loser, if not now, then in the next legislative session. As lawmakers anticipated 23 years ago when they removed the word nigger from Maine place names, squaw was next on the list of offensive terms. The only question might be what took it so long to arrive.

Dictionaries tend to back up the assertion that squaw is derogatory. Rep Donald Soctomah, the Passamaquoddy tribal representative who brought the issue before lawmakers, found the Thesaurus of Slang likened squaw to prostitute, harlot, hussy and floozy. Webster calls it “often offensive” and “usually disparaging.” However defined, the word clearly offends at least a portion of the people it refers to: Indian women.

Several supporters of removing the word squaw from place names have likened it to the use of the word nigger in names around Maine until 1977 legislation banned that sad practice. But there is a difference in the case of squaw. Most people learned about the word from TV westerns, where it was commonly used to refer to an Indian woman or wife only, without connotations any more negative than those received by women generally in those movies. Few Maine people by the late 1970s had any doubt about the derogatory, even threatening use of “nigger.”

That means there will be a period in which lawmakers need to be convinced that the current argument is serious and not a bout of political correctness. But history is on the side of the squaw-ban supporters — they can make a case for the offensiveness of the word, and its constant use, whether as an intended insult or not, is obvious on every Maine map. Pretty soon, lawmakers will be discussing the process by which changing the names might be done with the least disruption.

In this, Sen. Susan Longley, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, had the right idea when she said asked whether it was possible that a name change could lead to positive publicity for the Greenville area, which has 18 of the 25 place names that include the word squaw. While that publicity might be short-lived, what if area residents could name these places to the community’s best advantage? Certainly Squaw Mountain is a well-known ski area, and this isn’t to suggest that names of private businesses would change. But is there a name for the mountain that could attract even more skiers? Could the right new name create buzz in the ski industry to persuade more skiers to take a second look at the mountain?

What’s in a name? Plenty, when the history of the word is freighted with discrimination and injustice. Maine can plausibly say it meant no harm in choosing these names, but what is its excuse once it has been pointed out that harm is being done?