Cecil tackles 'squaw'

Tue Mar 21 13:49:05 UTC 2000

Ives Goddard definitely knows what he is talking about; he is one of the
foremost authorities on North American Indian languages -- especially the
Algonquian family.  However, he could make a public statement, even on
Oprah, giving the real history of the word, and it would probably have no
effect on the acceptance of the "vagina" story (shades of "posh"!), which is
just too colorful and racy, and feeds so beautifully into the political
agendas of some very angry people.   That said, there is no doubt that the
word is an offensive one because it has been used through most of its
history in English as a disparaging racist term, although its origin seems
to have been merely as a designation for the females of the native people
encountered by European explorers.  Regardless of whether any disparagement
was intended, however, Indians who were not Algonquian-speaking had from the
beginning of their exposure to it resented the word as an ignorant white
attempt to foist on them what was to them an essentially meaningless term;
that is, as if there were only one "Indian" language and hence all Indians
should recognize "squaw".

Victoria

Merriam-Webster, Inc. P.O. Box 281
Springfield, MA 01102
Tel: 413-734-3134  ext 124
Fax: 413-827-7262

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
> Of Bruce Dykes
> Sent: Tuesday, March 21, 2000 5:39 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Cecil tackles 'squaw'
>
>
> The latest Straight Dope column (http://www.straightdope.com/ )
> gives us the
> skinny on Squaw:
>
> Dear Cecil:
>
> Here in Maine, the state legislature is taking up a bill to ban the use of
> the word squaw in place names. Native Americans contend that it is a
> vulgarity, meaning prostitute or c*** rather than woman. Was this
> a general
> word that was used in many languages, or was it specific to one
> or two? Are
> there any old Native American songs or poems that might use this word in a
> more ordinary sense, revealing that it is not as degrading as they might
> contend, or is it absent from N.A. literature, indicating that it
> is indeed
> vulgar? If it is found in the literature, are other "vulgar" words used as
> well? --Paul Mattor, Hollis, Maine
>
> Cecil replies:
>
> Let's cut the pretense of scholarship, Paul. What you really want to know
> is, DOES SQUAW MEAN C***, OR WHAT?
>
> Answer: No. I'm not saying it's not an insult. It's just not an obscene
> insult.
>
> The idea that squaw means vagina (to use the polite term) first found its
> way into print in a polemical 1973 book, Literature of the
> American Indian,
> by Thomas E. Sanders and Walter W. Peek. Sanders and Peek,
> without offering
> evidence, advanced the theory that squaw derived from the Mohawk word
> ojiskwa' (sources vary on spelling), meaning vagina. This notion
> appealed to
> a certain mind-set and was circulated widely in the activist community. In
> 1992 it was revealed to the world at large on Oprah by Native American
> spokesperson Suzan Harjo: "The word squaw is an Algonquin [sic]
> Indian word
> meaning vagina, and that'll give you an idea of what the French
> and British
> fur trappers were calling all Indian women, and I hope no one
> ever uses that
> term again." This marked the beginning of organized efforts to remove the
> word squaw from place names, a campaign that continues today, so far with
> mixed success.
>
> Hey, free country. Except that squaw doesn't mean vagina. "It is
> as certain
> as any historical fact can be that the word squaw that the
> English settlers
> in Massachusetts used for 'Indian woman' in the early 1600s was adopted by
> them from the word squa that their Massachusett-speaking neighbors used in
> their own language to mean 'female, younger woman,' and not from Mohawk
> ojiskwa', 'vagina,' which has the wrong shape [sound], the wrong meaning,
> and was used by people with whom they then had no contact. The resemblance
> that might be perceived between squaw and the last syllable of the Mohawk
> word is coincidental." This comes to us from Ives Goddard, a specialist in
> linguistics and curator at the Smithsonian Institution, writing
> in News From
> Indian Country, mid-April 1997.
>
> Massachusett (no s), one of the Algonquian family of languages, was spoken
> by Native Americans in eastern Massachusetts. As is common with "first
> contact" languages, Massachusett and its Algonquian cousins
> contributed many
> terms, including papoose, sachem, skunk, opossum, and raccoon, that
> thereafter became standard English words, even in parts of North America
> where Algonquian languages weren't spoken. The first recorded use of squaw
> in English dates from 1622, and it had been adopted into the language by
> 1634. The Mohawks were 200 miles away, spoke a completely
> different language
> (Mohawk is part of the Iroquoian family of languages, not Algonquian,
> Harjo's statement notwithstanding), and were hostile to the Massachusett
> Indians.
>
> Having deep-sixed . . . hmm, not the best choice of terms. Having
> dispatched
> the squaw = c*** angle, let's turn to the more general issue: is squaw
> considered an insult by Native American women? Lots of them sure think it
> is, although to what extent that's due to misinformation about the term's
> origin is debatable. "Documented uses of the word squaw in clearly
> derogatory senses are in fact hard to find," writes University of Colorado
> linguistics expert William Bright in a forthcoming article. One early
> example: "the crafty 'squaw' . . . the squalid and withered person of this
> hag," from James Fenimore Cooper's Last of the Mohicans. (Squaw,
> squalid--you can see a problem right there.) On the other hand,
> tribes such
> as the Navajo use terms like squaw dance to this day.
>
> One doesn't want to get overly PC about it, but the protesters
> have a point
> when they say special terms for minority women are inherently demeaning.
> Think about it. Negress. Jewess. Sixty years ago these terms were
> in common
> use. Now they make your flesh creep. Next picture some
> pot-bellied slob in a
> cowboy hat: "Why, if it ain't a injun and his squaw." In 1967, 143 place
> names containing the word nigger were changed to Negro by order
> of the U.S.
> Board on Geographic Names. Squaw Valley may not be in the same league as
> Nigger Lake on the offensiveness scale. But it's up there with Pickaninny
> Creek.
>
> --CECIL ADAMS
>
> Cecil Adams can deliver the Straight Dope on any topic. Write Cecil at the
> Chicago Reader, 11 E. Illinois, Chicago 60611, or E-mail him at
> cecil at chicagoreader.com.
>