California is stripping the word “squaw” – a derogatory term for Indigenous women – from dozens of place names across 15 counties, state agencies recently announced.
For decades, the names of more than 100 of the state’s parks, buildings, streets, bridges and other geographic features and locations have included the term, which is considered racist and offensive toward Native American women, according to a bill California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law in 2022.
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The updated place names are expected to go in effect by January 1, 2025. The upcoming changes are part of nationwide efforts to examine and replace derogatory terms on geographic features.
The California Advisory Committee on Geographic Names approved renaming more than 30 locations, marking “a significant milestone for Native American women,” the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) said in a news release Friday.
“The names we give to places in California reflect our shared history and culture. These place names should never insult communities or perpetuate discrimination,” Wade Crowfoot, the CNRA’s secretary, said in the release.
Crowfoot said the move serves “to right a historic wrong” against California’s Native American communities, which make up 1.7% of the state’s population, according to 2022 United States Census Bureau data.
The geographic features and place names will be replaced in 15 counties by January 1, 2025, and the new names have been selected in consultation with California Native American tribes, the CNRA said.
One of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s fire stations in Fresno County, a bridge in Humboldt County and many roads across several other counties are among those to be renamed.
A federal order signed in November 2021 by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American to serve as a cabinet secretary, declared the term as derogatory.
In February 2022, the Interior Department’s Derogatory Geographic Names Task Force began moving forward with removing the term from more than 600 geographic features through the 2021 order.
California’s Assembly Bill No. 2022 approved by Newsom required the slur to be removed from all of California’s geographic features and place names beginning January 1, 2025.
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If local governments fail to recommend a replacement name within 180 days of that date, the bill states a commission and advisory bodies will step in to recommend a new name.
“(The bill) received broad support around the state from tribes, tribal advocates, civil rights organizations, teachers and many more,” California assemblymember and the bill’s author, James C. Ramos, said in the news release Friday.
“Not one of my colleagues in the legislature voted against the bill because so many recognize this word is not a (place name) that belongs in California,” Ramos said.
Some place names in the state have already begun changing. In July, West Sacramento worked with a tribe to replace the term on the names of two of its streets.
The change officially goes into effect for those streets in early 2025, the city said in the release.
CNN’s Sara Smart and Yan Kaner contributed to this report.
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