DOVER-FOXCROFT – Enough of “moose” already. Bring back the word “squaw,” Piscataquis County commissioners say.

The commissioners fired off a letter last month to Gov. John Baldacci asking to change about 14 geographic features in Piscataquis County from “moose” back to their original name of “squaw.” They also plan to ask Rep. Earl Richardson, R-Greenville, to sponsor legislation for the change.

A spokesman in the governor’s office said Thursday it has not yet received the unregistered letter, which was addressed to the governor but sent to the Department of Professional and Finance

Regulation. Officials at that department also said Thursday they were unfamiliar with the letter.

Richardson said Thursday that he was told unofficially of the move. “I would just as soon do it,” he said of the proposed legislation.

“Moose” replaced the word “squaw” in Piscataquis County six years ago when then-Gov. Angus King signed into law a bill that required the renaming of all geographic features and locations in the state called “squaw” and “squa.”

The move was made at the behest of American Indians who found the words offensive and demeaning to women. They said the word refers roughly to female genitals.

While Piscataquis County officials reluctantly agreed to rename all of the “squaw” features to “moose,” it appears the state itself never fully made a change.

“The only thing the state changed was Big and Little Squaw mountains, nothing else,” Commissioner Tony Bartley said Wednesday.

The two mountains now are known as Big Moose and Little Moose mountains, although the owner of the private Squaw Mountain Resort and ski area continues to use the name Big Squaw Mountain. State maps still carry the names of Squaw Bay, Squaw Brook and Little Squaw Pond, he said.

DeLorme Inc., the Freeport map company, has removed the word “squaw” on those features that have been renamed, according to marketing manager Charlie Conley. The company relies on the U.S. Geological Survey for the official names, he said Thursday.

The U.S. Geological Survey’s Web site this week listed three locations in Maine with the word “squaw,” including Squaw Island in Cumberland County and Squaw Point and Squaw Head in Waldo County.In addition, some state departments continue to use the previous names on their Web sites, according to the commissioners. As an example, a Bureau of Air Quality report in the Department of Environmental Protection’s Web site on Thursday listed the acid rain monitoring results for 2006 at Squaw Brook.

“We feel we weren’t used right,” Bartley said. The new law rankled many county residents, who said some of the features in the county named “squaw” actually were named by the Indians, he said.

Donald Soctomah of Pleasant Point, newly re-elected Passamaquoddy tribal representative to the state House of Representatives, disagreed. He said the word “squaw” isn’t even an American Indian word.

As the sponsor of the bill that called for the removal of the word “squaw,” Soctomah said Thursday he was upset to hear that someone wanted to resume use of the offensive word. “We wouldn’t support that,” he said.

“We went through the process, and I don’t want to have to go through the process again,” Soctomah said. He said the process was hard and people got their feelings hurt.

Maine’s law had a ripple effect as other states adopted the same measure, according to Soctomah.

“I’m sure Maine taxpayers want to spend their money on something more productive than to go through something again that caused such hard feelings with the native people,” Soctomah said.

“This change is in no way intended to offend anyone,” Bartley said. He said the commissioners have heard an “extreme” amount of negative feedback from landowners and tourists over the past several years about the name change, so much so that they felt obligated to take action.

Commissioner Fred Trask, who is a American Indian, said his mother, Dottie Trask, could not understand why the word “squaw” was removed in the first place.

“She was not offended,” he said. Trask was not a member of the board of commissioners when the law went into effect.

“It’s been named for more than 200 years, and we changed their names just to appease people from away to be politically correct,” Trask said.