California to Rename 43 Places With ‘Squaw’ in the Name

California officials announced on Friday they will rename all geographic features and places in the state that previously contained the derogatory term “squaw.”

The California Natural Resources Agency said it would remove the word from dozens of streets, bridges, buildings and cemeteries around the state and replace it with names that prioritize Indigenous cultures and languages.

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“These changes, proposed by local communities in strong partnership with California Native people, allow all Californians to move forward from a past that denigrated Native women and into present that embraces the beauty, diversity and potential that are a hallmark of this state,” California Tribal Affairs Secretary Christina Snider-Ashtari said in a press release.

The moves stem from a 2022 law by Assemblymember James Ramos, a member of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians who said the word “dehumanizes” Native American women, and follow a similar effort at the federal level by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to ban the word from federal lands.

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