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Arizona ranks high on states with offensive place names eyed for change
Tuesday, March 29, 2022
Cronkite News
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Arizona could be a primary target when federal officials meet with tribes to talk about possible new names for places that currently contain a slur against Native American women.
With 67 locations that have the word “squaw” in their name, Arizona ranks third among 37 states in a list compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey, trailing only California, with 85, and Idaho, with 72.
Those are some of the 664 places across the U.S. that were the subject of Interior Department virtual consultation sessions with tribes early last week, to consider names that could replace the term that is now considered derogatory.
In Arizona, the locations are in every county but Pima and sit on federal, state, private and tribal lands, including 11 on the Navajo, Fort Apache, San Carlos and Fort Mojave reservations.
“I agree with initiatives to change the names of places that include disparaging racially charged and gendered slurs,” Coconino County Supervisor Lena Fowler said in an emailed statement. “This corrective action of removing all offensive place names is an important step in honoring the humanity of Native American people still here today.”
Note: This story originally appeared on Cronkite News. It is published via a Creative Commons license. Cronkite News is produced by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.
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Nominations open for new Advisory Committee on Reconciliation in Place Names (January 7, 2022)Secretary Haaland takes action against racist and derogatory place names (November 19, 2021)
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