The Colorado Geographic Naming Advisory Board on Sunday began the process of scrubbing the offensive slur “squaw” from 28 of the state’s peaks, valleys, passes and creeks. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland in November created a committee to strip the offensive name from federal maps. The Derogatory Geographic Names Task Force in February identified […]
Squaw Mountain
Posted inNews, Outdoors
Geographic naming board agrees to scrape offensive name from Chaffee County gulch
The Colorado Geographic Naming Advisory Board on Thursday agreed that Chaffee County’s offensively named Chinaman Gulch should be changed to Yan Sing Gulch, which means resilience in Chinese. “As in resilience in the face of adversity,” said William Wei, a member of the board. The board will send its recommendation to Gov. Jared Polis, who […]
Posted inColoradans, Equity, News, Outdoors, Politics and Government
Peak near Evergreen renamed Mestaa’ėhehe Mountain as slurs are stripped from Colorado landmarks
By Corinne Westeman, Clear Creek Courant The U.S. Board on Geographic Names has approved the petition to rename a Clear Creek County peak Mestaa’ėhehe Mountain. The board approved changing the name from Squaw Mountain, a name government bodies have recognized as a slur, during a meeting Thursday in Washington, D.C. Teanna Limpy, director of the Northern Cheyenne […]
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Interior secretary orders removal of racist terms, aims to change place names
By Susan Montoya Bran, The Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland on Friday formally declared “squaw” a derogatory term and said she is taking steps to remove it from federal government use and to replace other derogatory place names. Haaland is ordering a federal panel tasked with naming geographic places to […]
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Colorado governor tells geographic renaming board to consider easier-to-pronounce alternatives
Gov. Jared Polis said “dots and dashes” made it hard to say Mestaa’ėhehe Mountain — leading one board member to label the governor’s position “problematic”
Posted inEquity, News, Outdoors, Outsider
Colorado’s new board to rename controversial landmarks has its first recommendation: Mestaa’ėhehe Mountain
The Colorado Geographic Naming Advisory Board on Thursday made its first recommendation: changing the name of Squaw Mountain in Clear Creek County to Mestaa’ėhehe Mountain. After a year of plodding procedural meetings, the board unanimously approved renaming the peak — referred to in debate as “S-Mountain” — after the influential Cheyenne translator known as Owl […]