Westneat: Replacing derogatory names is new front for culture wars

Our state Committee on Geographic Names is a little-known group inclined more to cartographic arguments than cultural ones. It found itself under fire from all sides.

“It should remain up to Indigenous People to decide for ourselves what is of offense, not pundits, talking heads, amateur journalists, or white folks in general,” a member of the Nez Perce Tribe wrote to the committee.

The decision came down from Deb Haaland, the first Native American secretary of the Interior, who said “squaw” was self-evidently derogatory and should be replaced across the country.

But Interior set up a super-tight timetable. And it fashioned a bewildering rubric for renaming all those places quickly, one with unintended consequences.

A task force identified the closest geographic features to the ones named “squaw,” and then suggested simply replacing that “derogatory modifier” with one of the nearby root names.

For example, Squaw Island down in the Columbia River is adjacent to Gee Creek. So it could be quickly, and presumably painlessly, renamed “Gee Island.”

It’s not so simple out at Mount Rainier National Park. They have a Squaw Lake, and one nearby feature is a meadow called Indian Henry’s Hunting Ground. So the lake could then become “Indian Henry’s Hunting Lake.”

Which … doesn’t make a ton of sense? And might also be racist?

To its credit, our state Committee on Geographic Names looked at this brewing civil war and yelled “time out!” Not with getting rid of “squaw,” which they support. But it’ll take at least two years to come up with replacement names that make sense and don’t erase or re-subjugate Indian culture.

The committee is worried it may be forced into accepting the computerized names, as placeholders, and then have to go back to change the names a second time. Government efficiency at its peak.

My only input is: Just ask the tribes. They probably have names for these lakes and creeks or stories about those areas. Using their names could be a tiny step to reversing the damage. It would also enrich our maps, and our history, rather than blanderizing both with names picked by algorithm.

The biggest mistake was by whoever thought this country might quickly confront its past without first dragging it through the muck of a cultural conflict.

Americans aren’t fighting right now about policy issues, like climate change or taxes. What gets us going the most are questions of who we are, and the stories we tell, often falsely, about ourselves.