In January 2023, the federal government removed a common slur that is both racist and sexist towards Indigenous women in nearly 650 locations nationwide. A few months earlier, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill removing the word sq**w from public spaces in California.
One of these uses was in Yokuts Valley in Fresno County, California. Yokuts Valley, population 3,511, is a small community located at the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains on State Route 180, just south of Kings Canyon National Park. According to the USDA's definition, the Yokuts Valley is rural.
The federal name-change movement was led by Roman Rain Tree. Rain Tree is a member of the Dunlap Band of Mono Indians and Choinumni People and is the founder of the Rename Squ**w Valley Coalition.
In January of 2022, Rain Tree filed a petition with the U.S. Board of Geographic Names, saying that the region "deserved a respectable name, one that, at the very least, does not degrade the people indigenous to the Sierra Nevada foothills." This petition ultimately resulted in the January 2023 federal name change.
Before we look at this rural place's decision in refusing to comply with these changes, we should dive into the history of the term first.
History of the S-Word
The term sq**w (now referred to as the "S-Word") has been historically problematic. It is understood by Indigenous peoples (like the NimÃipuu community) as "an alien non-Indian term." The term does not have an indigenous linguistic equivalence, and was never translated into the Nez Perce language.
Moreover, the phase was created by Lewis and Clark in 1805 and was later used by early fur traders and trappers who came to Idaho. The University of Idaho's Lewis & Clark rediscovery project studied the word's significance and found that while Lewis and Clark attached a neutral meaning to the term, it is still derogatory:
Lewis and Clark perhaps attached a more neutral meaning to the term's use in their day, not deliberately intending it to be offensive. In daily verbal discourse today Indians generally understand the term in a highly negative fashion, referring to a range of derogatory and demeaning significances.
Scholars have historically debated the origins of the term. In 2000, linguist William Bright at the University of Colorado published a research paper in A Journal of Onomastics called "The Sociolinguistics of the “S–Word”: Squaw in American Placenames" where he defines the S-Word and its origins in the paper's abstract (NOTE: quote has been edited for political correctness):
Placenames containing the word [“sq**w”] are numerous throughout the United States, but have recently become controversial. American Indian groups and individuals have presented three kinds of argument against the use of the term. The first argument is that it is derived from an Mohawk word for the female genitalia. Linguistic data show, however, that it is actually a New England Massachusett word for ‘woman'. [sic] A second argument presented is that “sq**w” has been, and is still, used derogatorily by whites toward Indian women. This argument is supported only weakly by literary documents, but more strongly by frontier memoirs and journalistic writing. The third argument is that [“sq***w”] is offensive to Indians, in the same way that [“n****r”] is offensive to African Americans.Regardless of its origins, the term is considered universally offensive by Indigenous peoples in America and Canada. It is considered to be so offensive that even prior to 2023, businesses have been renaming things that mention S-Word an effort to condemn America's colonial and oppressive history. In June of 2020, Palisades Tahoe (a ski resort formerly known as S-Word Valley) committed to changing its name and stopped using the derogatory term in September of 2021.
Rural Places Hesitancy to Correct Our Problematic Past via Renaming
This month, Fresnoland published an article detailing how Fresno County is refusing to acknowledge both the S-Word's offensive history and even the existence of the name change in general.
While the majority of these places honor the name change, Fresno County has refused to accept and comply with this name change. In an interview with Fresnoland, County Supervisor Nathan Magsig said that: "“Fresno County recognizes [Sq**w] Valley as [Sq**w] Valley.” In a Facebook video, Magsig can be seen using the derogatory term.
Unfortunately, Magsig and Fresno County do not have to comply with the federal name change mandate regarding the S-Word because the federal 2023 removal of the S-Word applies only to federal jurisdictions, even though the petition was started by a member living in the Yokuts Valley.
Magsig and Fresno County continue to fight to keep the S-Word around. The Fresno County Board of Supervisors’ rebuked the federal name-change mandate, and refuse to acknowledge the change ever existed.
The Fresno County Board of Supervisors also voted in March to sue the state of California based on the bill Newsom signed. The lawsuit claims that the County "never intended [the term]. . . to be derogatory or racist in its intent or cultural meaning in that Community" and should remain because of the First Amendment.
My question is: why are local governments so committed to opposing name changes that correct offensive nomenclature? More broadly, why are rural places more hesitant to embrace social change?
One reason could be political orientations. A 2018 Pew Research Center poll found that rural voters are increasingly tilting Republican, with 54 percent of survey rural respondents surveyed identifying as "Republican or Republican-leaning" and 36 percent identifying as "Democrat or Democrat-leaning."
Among the Republican respondents, the study found that rural Republicans had more favorable views of former President Donald Trump than urban or suburban Republicans.
Former president Donald Trump certaintly does not stand for political correctness. In a 2016 article, NPR quoted Trump who denounced political correctness:
I think the big problem this country has is being politically correct," Trump tells the moderator, Fox News' Megyn Kelly. "I've been challenged by so many people and I don't, frankly, have time for total political correctness. And to be honest with you, this country doesn't have time, either.
Trump has also been known to be an offensive name-caller. He has called Senator Elizabeth Warren "Pocahontas," U.S. representative Adam Schiff "Pencil Neck," and even made fun of the appearance of Senator Ted Cruz's wife, comparing her to his wife Melania.
Polls also show that Republicans are more likely to oppose changes that make place names politically correct. Last year, the Washington R*dsk*ns changed their name to the Washington Commanders because the team name was "offensive to many Indigenous people who viewed the name and branding as both a slur and a disparaging stereotype grounded in America's history of violence against Native peoples," according to NPR.
While many people praised the Commander's name change, 90 percent of Republicans surveyed in a 2014 study said a name change was unnecessary. While that survey was almost ten years old, not much had changed by the time the switch to Commanders was made. In 2021, Native groups demanded that the Atlanta Braves eliminate the "Tomahawk chop" symbol on the team's logo, saying that it perpetuates racist stereotypes. As of today, the MLB team logo remains.
One reason besides political affiliations as to why rural communities could be adverse to name changes is because they are more focused on what they see as greater, more significant problems. To use a rural colloquialism, they have "bigger fish to fry."
A 2022 Pew Research Study found that rural Americans are more worried about drug addiction compared to their urban and suburban counterparts. The poll found that 44 percent of rural Americans believe drug overdose is a major problem in their communities compared to 33 percent of suburban folks and 34 percent of urban folks surveyed.
Further, rural Americans are less likely to have reliable health care services compared to their counterparts. They also have higher rates of poverty than those in metropolitan areas. The incidence of disability is also greater in rural areas than metropolitan areas.
Regardless, both rural and urban governments should prioritize the renaming of landmarks, sports teams, and rivers. This is a great first step toward denouncing America's racist and oppressive past.
As a society, we have a large responsibility to do better to honor Indigenous peoples and denounce the injustice associated with the founding of this country. A recent Australian ballot initiative that would have given Indigenous People greater political rights failed. While this is disappointing, it is hard to imagine a comparable initiative even appearing on a ballot in the United States. Unfortunately, some local governments won't even rename things that are offensive, let alone give Indigenous People more political rights.
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