Twenty-six places in Alaska received a new name Sept. 8 as part of the Interior Department’s initiative to remove a derogatory word for Indigenous women — a change that affects more than 650 sites and geographic features across the country. Of those, 26 sites are in Alaska.
The official name change process has been almost a year in the making. In November 2021, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland unveiled an order to remove the word squaw, a slur for Native women, from federal lands. Many Indigenous organizations, including the Alaska Federation of Natives and Native American Rights Fund, supported Haaland’s initiative.
“I feel a deep obligation to use my platform to ensure that our public lands and waters are accessible and welcoming. That starts with removing racist and derogatory names that have graced federal locations for far too long,” Haaland said in a prepared statement.
Some Alaska Native groups worked with the Interior Department to suggest replacement names for different places. For example, the Curyung Tribal Council in Dillingham met with Interior to recommend renaming a local creek Amau Creek, which includes the Yugtan word for great-grandmother, to honor the community’s strong female ancestors. Three local girls pushed to change the creek’s name, prompting debate in the community, months before Haaland’s order.
Two of the name changes are in Southeast Alaska: A stream near Whale Pass has been renamed Kayáashkeiditaan Creek, and a mountain on Dall Island, off the west coast of Prince of Wales Island, has been renamed Hiilaang Ts'uujuus Mountain.
In the Native Village of Eagle in eastern Interior Alaska, a mountain has been renamed Jëjezliuu Tr’injàa Mountain at the Eagle Village Tribal Council’s request.
“I’m very happy. I think that’s such an amazing accomplishment for our village,” said Native Village of Eagle First Chief Karma Ulvi. “Our tribe is able to name a mountain that has been a derogatory name for so long and actually respect and honor Native women with the name that we chose.”
Other geographic features received new names suggested by the Interior Department, such as Crystal Creek in the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area. The creek’s name was derived from the nearby Crystal Peak.
Similar renaming decisions by the Interior Department had previously applied to two other derogatory terms, one for Black Americans and another for people of Japanese descent.
Haaland said in her November secretarial order mandating the name changes that the slur for Native women “is no less derogatory than others which have been identified and should also be erased from the National landscape and forever replaced.”
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