The Department of the Interior is seeking nominations for members of the new Advisory Committee on Reconciliation in Place Names. The committee is to identify geographic names and federal land unit names that are considered derogatory, and to solicit proposals on replacement names.
On November 19th, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland directed the National Park Service to form that committee as part of a broad effort to review and replace derogatory names of the nation’s geographic features. Included among them, Secretary Haaland declared “squaw” to be a derogatory term and instructed the Board on Geographic Names to implement procedures to remove the term from federal usage.
In Wyoming, several locations are prominent among the list of offensive names including 43 locations with “squaw” in their names. Hayden Valley and Mt. Doane in Yellowstone are also considered offensive due to the anti-Native American records of the individuals for which they are named, and 20 Native American Tribes have stated Devils Tower is offensive as the name of what they considered a sacred site.
The Committee will consist of no more than 17 discretionary members from a variety of backgrounds to be appointed by the Secretary
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