NO PLACE FOR SQUAW

Reigniting the debate over the use of the word “squaw” in place names will accomplish little, while engendering unnecessary ill will. It is understandable that Piscataquis County commissioners are upset that the squaw name has not been removed from all the state’s features, as required by law. The solution, however, isn’t to go back to the name considered offensive by many Native Americans, as the county commissioners have proposed. Instead, others in the state should complete the re-naming work.

Six years ago, then-Gov. Angus King signed a law requiring the removal of “squaw” or “squa” from Maine geographic features and locations and highway signs. This was an expansion of a 1977 law removing the offensive name “nigger” from the state’s landscape.

There were 23 locations under public jurisdiction that carried a version of the squaw appellation, more than half in Piscataquis County. The 12 in Piscat-aquis County, including well-known Squaw Mountain, were quickly renamed “moose.” Other counties simply combined words making “Squa Pan” in Aroostook County Squapan or using the name Squawhead in Stockton Springs, for example. This doesn’t fulfill the intent of the law and must be remedied.

Piscataquis County commissioners should take pride in their quick action. Instead, they want to drop moose and go back to squaw. They say they’ve gotten negative feedback from landowners and tourists about the name change.

Although tourists don’t come to an area because of place names, there could be confusion because many area residents still call Big Moose Mountain by its old name: Squaw Mountain. It doesn’t help that the owner of a ski area on the mountain continues to call it Squaw Mountain Resort.

This shows that the government can mandate a change, but can’t force a change in tradition. This is not, however, an invitation to turn back the clock.

As they did during the debate over the squaw ban bill, many argue that the word is not offensive. This discussion, likely to go on for years, is beside the point. Webster’s New World College Dictionary says the word “is now considered offensive” and is a “mild term of contempt.” This trumps arguments about the intended use of the word and the economic effects of its removal.

Donald Soctomah, the Passamaquoddy tribal representative to the House and sponsor of the original bill, said it best. “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,” he said last week.

This debate is over. The action now must be to complete the work of removing the word from state places.