Folks,

I thought I'd add something to the discussion of "squaw" briefly, since I
do a lot of work with Native issues. It's definitely become a hot topic
lately, but it's very complicated. Many Indian activists hate the term,
because it has a long history of being used as a derogatory slur against
Indian women (you should see some of the sources I come across in my
research!). Often, it's used like a few of our other awful words for
female genitalia. So it's clear that there is a racist history here.

On the other hand, there are a number of Native women from Algonquian
speaking communities who have pointed out that skwa is a root word meaning
woman, and don't see it as a big deal. I've seen some really hot debates
about this on a couple of lists. It seems to me that the source of the
word is in fact a group of Native languages, but what 19th century
Americans did with the word isn't particularly honorable. Marge Bruchac,
one of the Algonquian women who have written about this, has become the
target of much criticism from activists (even though she is one herself),
so you can see how tricky this is.

One interesting fallout of all this is the move to remove "squaw" as a
place name -- Maine, for example, is doing this right now. While many of
us would prefer not to see Nigger Creek or Chinaman Gulch on maps,
"Squaw's Tit" and other place names still exist on a lot of maps. One
issue, though, is that a lot of place names like these actually attest to
the historic presence of real people who were black, Asian, or Indian --
when we remove these names, do we remove what little evidence is left of
those people, in effect "whitewashing" the landscape? I've proposed that
local historians get involved in finding out who the "nigger," "chinaman,"
and "squaw" really was, and rename those places after them. (This is
especially important, since a lot of these often rural places are assumed
to have always been "white space.")

So anyway, it's really complicated. I don't know about the oldsquaw and
where that term comes from specifically, but I don't think it hurts to
talk about this issue. As for those who dismiss all this as "political
correctness," you might want to rethink it -- this matters quite a bit to
a lot of people. Saying "get over it" simply doesn't address the long
history -- and ongoing challenges -- of Indian-white relations. Are we
REALLY that invested in a particular name for a mountain or a bird? I
mean, what if "Squaw's Tit" was renamed with its Yakama name, or
"oldsquaw" was replaced with the Inuit word for that species (if not just
long-tailed duck)? Wouldn't that actually be more interesting?

Just my two (well, maybe ten) cents' worth first thing in the morning.
Now back to birds!

Coll

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Coll-Peter Thrush
Doctoral Candidate in History
University of Washington, Seattle
ishriver at u.washington.edu
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