A task force will prioritize a list of replacement names and present them to the federal Board on Geographic Names later this year
Highlights
- US officials have come up with a list of potential replacement names for hundreds of geographic sites in three dozen states.
- The list includes more than 660 sites in New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California, Idaho and many other states.
- US Interior secretary Deb Haaland in November formally declared the term “squaw’s derogatory and initiated a process to remove the word from use by the federal government and to replace other derogatory place names.
- The agency is planning three virtual meetings to consult with tribes in March, and written comments will be accepted through late April.
- The Board on Geographic Names took action in the 1960s and 1970s to eliminate use of derogatory terms related to Black and Japanese people.