Two Illinois sites are among nearly 650 geographic features across the nation renamed an order declared the word 'squaw' derogatory
The water feature near Palos Park in Cook County was formerly called Laughing Squaw Sloughs, but is now known as Cherry Hill Woods Sloughs, while the former Squaw Island in Calhoun County has been renamed Calhoun Island.across the nation to receive a new name following an order by U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who is the first Native American to lead a cabinet agency,
Haaland's order, issued in November, declared the word "squaw" derogatory and created a process for reviewing and replacing geographic place names that use the term. Dorene Wiese, a member of the White Earth Ojibwe Nation and president of the American Indian Association of Illinois, said that dating back to the 1800s, cartoon drawings depicted Indigenous women and used the term "squaw" in an offensive way.
Wiese, 73, hopes that removing references to the word in place names will be a step to ensure that the next generation won't be subjected to its offense, or even know of the word at all.
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