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Local places with ‘squaw’ slur get new names By Vickie Aldous Sep 18, 2022 01:00 AM A A 3 View all photos The twin Squaw Lakes in the Applegate Valley have been renamed Acorn Woman Lakes to remove the offensive slur. [Jamie Lusch / Mail Tribune] Many new names rooted in Native American culture When Brook Colley’s father wrote a 1994 book about Oregon swimming holes, he refused to use the name Squaw Lake for a picturesque lake surrounded by forested mountains in the Applegate Valley. “He called it ‘Lovely Lady Lake,’” said Colley, an associate professor and chair of the Southern Oregon University Native American Studies program. Now a pair of lakes called Squaw Lakes by white settlers in the Applegate have a new name — Acorn Woman Lakes. The U.S. Department of the Interior announced name changes this month for 650 geographic features that use the derogatory slur for Native American women. The list covers 53 lakes, streams, mountains and other geographic features in Oregon, including more than a dozen in Jackson and Josephine counties. The wave of name changes marks the last step in efforts to remove the slur from federal use, the Interior Department said. “I feel a deep obligation to use my platform to ensure that our public lands and waters are accessible and welcoming,” Interior Department Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement accompanying the announcement. “That starts with removing racist and derogatory names that have graced federal locations for far too long.” Colley, an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee with ties to the Warm Springs and Wasco tribes, said eliminating the slur from geographic names is long overdue. “It’s incredibly important and well beyond time to make these changes,” she said. “I’ve long thought that word needs to go. It’s very painful and harmful when said, especially when it’s done carelessly and used as a place name.” Colley said the slur contributes to the dehumanization of Native American women and violence toward them. Given that changing geographic names is often contentious, Colley said she appreciates the Interior Department Secretary’s work on the issue. “It can be very challenging to change names, as we’ve seen in Southern Oregon with names like Dead Indian Memorial Road here,” she said. In 1855, white settlers found two dead Native Americans in the area east of Ashland where the road was later built. After the road was constructed, they called it Dead Indian Road. The name was changed to Dead Indian Memorial Road in 1993, but remains controversial. In 2017, the Jackson County Board of Commissioners decided against taking action to change the name. As for Acorn Woman Lakes, the name draws on Native American mythology and also pays homage to the work women did to provide food for their people. The name Acorn Woman Lakes comes from a powerful mythological figure for the Takelma people. [Jamie Lusch / Mail Tribune] Acorn Woman was a powerful mythological figure for the Takelma people of the Rogue Valley, said historian and archaeologist Jeff LaLande, who has extensively researched Native American history and sites. “She would come down from where she lived most of the year on Mount McLoughlin and tear off pieces of her flesh and throw them onto oak trees. They would grow into acorns,” he said. Acorns were a staple of the diet of many Native Americans. But in their natural state, acorns contain tannins, a group of plant compounds that can be harmful if consumed in large quantities. Tannins are considered an antinutrient, meaning they reduce the body’s ability to absorb essential nutrients from food, according to medical experts. Through trial and error, Native Americans discovered they could leech the tannins out of acorns with water. Methods included shelling the acorns, mashing their interiors into flour, then spending hours pouring water over the flour to wash out the tannins. Other techniques relied on putting acorns in fast-flowing streams, according to experts on Indigenous foods. “It took a tremendous amount of experimentation over generations,” LaLande said. “It was a major discovery that bitter, almost-toxic acorns could be turned into nutritious, protein-rich food.” He said the Takelma people and other groups in Oregon and California figured out how to process and eat acorns. “All kinds of experiments were going on before we were born all over the world. People were experimenting with plants to learn if they were helpful or not helpful — or fatal. Life before us took so much courage. We don’t think about that,” LaLande said. North of Acorn Woman Lakes in the Applegate, Squaw Peak and Squaw Mountain have been renamed Acorn Woman Peak and Acorn Woman Mountain. Squaw Creek, which flows through the lakes and then empties into Applegate Lake, has been renamed Téel Creek. Téel means yellowjacket, according to the Interior Department. On the western flanks of the dormant volcanic peak Mount McLoughlin, North Squaw Tip is now Wilámxa Tip, and South Squaw Tip is Máalsi Tip. Both points rise more than 7,000 feet into the sky, but they’re dwarfed by the nearly 9,500-foot elevation of Mount McLoughlin. Wilámxa, meaning “The Floating Mountain,” was an Indigenous word for Mount McLoughlin itself, according to Thomas Doty, a storyteller who drew from Native American traditions. He passed away in 2020. Two hills on the flanks of Mount McLoughlin have been renamed Wilámxa Tip and Máalsi Tip. [Bureau of Land Management photo] The Takelma, Shasta and Klamath people all called the mountain by different names, according to LaLande. North of Lost Creek Lake, Squaw Prairie’s new name is Moolock Prairie. Moolock is a term for elk in Chinook Jargon, a blend of Native American and European languages once widely used by white and Indigenous people. With countless languages and dialects swirling in the Pacific Northwest, the blended, simplified terms of Chinook Jargon helped people communicate and trade with each other. Squaw Creek north of Lost Creek Lake has been renamed Huckleberry Creek in honor of an important traditional food source. In Josephine County, geographic features with the slur have been renamed Takelma Creek, Yulum (eagle) Ridge, Lapam (frog) Gulch, Nihwik (black bear) Mountain and Kailapa (woman) Mountain, according to the Interior Department. Robert Kentta, cultural resources director for the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians and a member of the Siletz Tribal Council, said he appreciates efforts that have been made over time to eliminate the slur from names. In the 1850s, most Indigenous people in the Rogue Valley were forcibly relocated from their land to the Siletz and Grand Ronde reservations in northwest Oregon. “The majority opinion of the tribe is that the s-word is offensive and was used offensively against tribal people as a way of dehumanizing our people. It’s not a local word. It was brought here and used for that racist purpose,” Kentta said. He said Indigenous people have long been involved in efforts to remove offensive names, but they haven’t always been consulted during past and current efforts. Sometimes offensive names get swapped out with Native American words that don’t actually fit the place. For example, a Takelma word might be used in an area where Takelma people never lived. “Let’s have a conversation about it. Don’t just go off and use our language any way you want,” Kentta said. He said most tribes are understaffed and overworked, and dealing with new names that aren’t culturally appropriate can distract them from more important work. Many tribes are still recovering from devastating losses they suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic, he said. Another priority for the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians is an ongoing project to reconstruct their history and culture. They scour through sources that range from old handwritten archaeologist field notes to wax cylinders used to record oral histories, Kentta said. “Federal policy has been really brutal to tribal communities. It tried to stamp out our identities, languages and cultures. We’re trying to recover a lot of that information about ourselves,” he said. Kentta’s great-great-grandfather lived in the Applegate Valley and was shot by miners during the Rogue River Wars between white people and Native Americans. His great-great-grandmother was killed while trying to return to her side of the family after her husband’s death. Their son, Kentta’s great-grandfather, was given the English name John Adams and forced to live on a reservation. “These are the stories we grew up hearing and knowing. The connection is personal to us,” Kentta said. Looking toward the future, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians has teamed with SOU and other partners on the Indigenous Gardens Network project to restore access to and use of traditional foods. “We hope to gather acorns in the Rogue Valley on properties where we’re invited. We want to reintroduce ourselves and reconnect to those foods,” Kentta said. Meanwhile, the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest has started looking at what signs, maps, websites, publications and other materials will need to be updated to reflect the new names. Many of the geographic features are on land managed by the Forest Service. The new names aren’t necessarily set in stone. Some people may not believe a particular new name is a good match. Some geographic features with the slur in their names were simply renamed based on other nearby geographic features that didn’t include the slur. For example, Squaw Creek that flows into Applegate Lake was renamed Téel (yellowjacket) Creek because Yellowjacket Ridge is nearby, the Interior Department said. The Derogatory Geographic Names Task Force created by the Interior Department received more than 1,000 name recommendations from the public, plus several hundred more recommendations after consulting with 70 tribal governments across the nation, the Interior Department said. People can continue to propose name changes for natural features to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. For instructions, see usgs.gov/faqs/how-can-i-propose-name-change-natural-feature . The U.S. Board on Geographic Names process to change the names of natural features predates the Interior Department’s creation of the task force focused on derogatory names. The board considers whether there is a compelling reason to change a name and whether the new name has local use and acceptance. Changing a name to correct or reestablish historical usage isn’t a sufficient reason to change a name in and of itself. The board will consider changes to names considered offensive or derogatory, according to instructions for proposing a name change to the board. Reach Mail Tribune reporter Vickie Aldous at 541-776-4486 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @VickieAldous.