Central Oregon "SQUAW" Name Changes Approved (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

CENTRAL OREGON “SQUAW” NAME CHANGES APPROVED

Bend.com news sources
Posted: Friday, January 27, 2006  7:05 AM
http://bend.com/news/ar_view.php?ar_id=24206

SISTERS—The U.S. Board on Geographic Names has given final approval to
16 name changes and one new name for Central Oregon landscape features
that use the word “Squaw”.    The changes remove the derogatory word as
a place name and resulted from several years of consultation with the
Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs and the Oregon Geographic Names
Board. The new names now apply to five creeks, four buttes, four
canyons, two meadows and two waterfalls in Central Oregon.

Many Native Americans consider the word “Squaw” to be a derogatory term.
In 2001, Oregon became the sixth state to ban the term from public place
names under Senate Bill 488. Forest Service regulations also prohibit
derogatory names from being used in documents or on maps.

Deschutes and Ochoco National Forest officials proposed the changes to
comply with the state law and federal directives. The U.S. Board on
Geographic Names made final judgment on the proposed name changes,
after the Oregon Geographic Names Board’s initial review and approval
of the proposal in October 2005. The state board supervises the naming
of all geographic features within Oregon.

However, final approval is required by the U.S. Board on Geographic
Names before the changes are final.

“This is the largest group of name changes that have ever been approved
at one time in the state of Oregon,” said Champ Vaughan, Oregon
Geographic Names Board president.

Locally, the most well-known feature is Squaw Creek which runs through
Sisters and Madras. The stream is a federally-designated Wild and
Scenic River that flows from glaciers on the Three Sisters Mountains.
Its new name is “Whychus Creek” (pronounced “Why-choose”), a historic
name derived from the Sahaptin Indian language. Explorers recorded the
name in 1855, during a search for a new railroad route through the
Cascades to the Pacific Ocean.