"Indian summer" & "Indian" as disparaging adjective

[David D. Robertson]

Colin,

In my opinion, and phrased in a linguist's cant, you're talking about a
language-planning issue rather than one of correcting mistaken usage of an
existing word.

Now, in English :-), I'll say that this way...Nobody but nobody uses the
word "squaw" in current English, except in quotation marks or with
misguided intentions.  (Trying to evoke a historical frame or to insult.)
That's the fact and it's a sad one.

I don't know Cree, and have only read what a bunch of linguists have
written on this controversy, but my impression is (A) "squaw" is a root or
word throughout the enormous Algonquian language family and (B) has as its
essential meaning only "female".  Seems like an everyday word, when you're
speaking Cree, Ojibwe, Micmac, etc.

Removed from its native-language context, though, this word has become
subject to the "terms & conditions of use" of English.  No Cree woman or
girl I know will accept being described or addressed with the S-word.  No
other women I know will, either.

Compare the trajectory of Chinook Jargon /lhuchmEn/ <klootchman>
meaning "female", once it became used in English.  Originally a neutral
term in Jargon, in short order "klootchman" or the even slangier "klootch"
was the Pacific Northwest equivalent of "squaw", down to the parameters of
usage:  Historical records give me the impression the term indicated that
one was viewing Native females from a non-Native (usually male)
perspective, usually with derogatory intent.

Well, at least "klootch" has died a natural death, thanks partly to its
never having become as widely known as "squaw" through popular literature.
Nowadays if you called someone a "klootch" you'd most likely receive a
blank look.  Would that the same were the case with "squaw"!



On Fri, 28 Mar 2003 15:54:31 +1100, Colin Bruce <cbruce at SMARTLINE.COM.AU>
wrote:

>I'd like to talk about Squaw.  It's a perfectly decent Cree word
describing perfectly decent
>Cree women, French women, Japanese women, Arab women, Lesbiens, Mothers,
Wives, Daughters
>Grandmothers and every other kind of women you might care to choose.  A
word only becomes
>sullied in the minds of the people who speak or hear it.  We could just
ignore past uses and
>dignify decent words with proper use.