[Ads-l] "Squaw" removed from place-names

[Barretts Mail]

BRIEF SUMMARY:

Regardless of historical or cultural considerations, the word “squaw” is, in English, considered derogatory. 

1. Deb Haaland, the first Native American Interior Secretary, announced last year a review of place-names, and today, there was announcement that “squaw” has been removed from more than 600 place-names. 

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/3634253-interior-department-removes-anti-native-slur-from-usage-in-federal-place-names/ <https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/3634253-interior-department-removes-anti-native-slur-from-usage-in-federal-place-names/>
(Interior Department removes anti-Native slur from usage in federal place names, Zach Budryk, 8 Sep 2022)

2. Jonathan Lighter mentions Haaland’s policy (https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2021-December/160783.html <https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2021-December/160783.html>) last year. 


3. William Bright notes that as far back as at least 1992 (Arizona) there has been activity by government entries or representatives to remove the word “squaw” from place-names. 

William Bright
The Sociolinguistics of the “S-Word”: Squaw in American Placenames
2000 The American Name Society 
https://tinyurl.com/ydcz3z9r <https://tinyurl.com/ydcz3z9r>

4. Grant Barrett (https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2007-September/074657.html <https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2007-September/074657.html>) notes this action was taken by Maine, but the article he points to no longer exists. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squaw#Efforts_to_rename_placenames_and_terms <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squaw#Efforts_to_rename_placenames_and_terms> for efforts to remove “squaw” by various governments. 

5. The OED’s earliest citation is 1622 as  "squa sachim”, a word of Pidgin Massachusett, which Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/squaw <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/squaw>) also has. It is in a book with a long title that can be found on Wikipedia as "Mourt’s Relation" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mourt%27s_Relation <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mourt's_Relation>). It is spelled "Squaw Sachem” in the version at http://www.histarch.illinois.edu/plymouth/mourt5.html <http://www.histarch.illinois.edu/plymouth/mourt5.html>. 

ACCEPTABILITY: 
6. The OED says the word is generally considered offensive. The entry includes quite a few compounds. 

7. Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squaw <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squaw>) says that the term is universally unacceptable by indigenous groups in the US and Canada.

8. Dictionary.com <http://dictionary.com/> (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/squaw <https://www.dictionary.com/browse/squaw>) says the word is disparaging and offensive in older use and and as slang.

9. Jesse Sheidlower (https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2000-April/005718.html <https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2000-April/005718.html>) provides a link to the "Straight Dope" where the topic is discussed by Cecil Adams (in connection with the Maine policy), who says the idea that the word is offensive was first printed in 1973 by Sanders and Peek. Adams pins the popularity of the word meaning cunt or vagina on mention of the idea on the "The Oprah Winfrey Show". The Cecil article has moved to https://www.straightdope.com/21343665/is-squaw-an-obscene-insult <https://www.straightdope.com/21343665/is-squaw-an-obscene-insult> and the article was also posted by Bruce Dykes at https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2000-March/005360.html <https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2000-March/005360.html>. 

Adams’s ultimately points out that words specifically for minority women are inherently demeaning. 

10. Joel Berson and Edward Callary discuss earlier obscene usage at https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2006-November/064307.html <https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2006-November/064307.html>.

11. Marge Bruchac, an Abenaki, has suggested reclaiming the word:

Reclaiming the Word “Squaw" in the Name of the Ancestors
Nov 1999
https://archive.ph/obumL#selection-11.0-13.28 <https://archive.ph/obumL#selection-11.0-13.28>

###
But traditional Algonkian speakers, in both Indian and English, still say words like "nidobaskwa" = a female friend, "manigebeskwa" = woman of the woods, or "Squaw Sachem" = female chief. When Abenaki people sing the Birth Song, they address "nuncksquassis" = "little woman baby.”

...

Indigenous people must publicly declare that we will no longer allow our words, names, skin color, beliefs, etc., to be used against us…. The sound "squaw," regardless of its spelling, is OUR word for woman, and it is NOT to be used as an insult!
###

ETYMOLOGY:
12. The OED’s etymology is as follows:
 < Massachusett squa, ussqua (pronounced /əskwaːw/) young, unmarried woman, cognate with e.g. Cree iskwēw, northern East Cree iskwaau (pronounced /əskwaːw/) < an Algonquian base with the sense ‘woman’.

12. Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squaw <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squaw>) says that the Algonquian forms are bound morphemes that cannot be used alone. ("Even in Algonquian, the related morphemes used are not the English-language slur, but only a component part of longer Algonquian words that contain more than one morpheme.) This aligns with Bruchac’s citations above. 



Having been dragged away from this topic by an offer of remunerative activity, I will send this email as is hoping it is not too disorderly or incomplete.

Benjamin Barrett (he/his/him)
Formerly of Seattle, WA
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org