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You are using a straw man argument. I do not speak to the issue of the naming of mountains of Arizona. The people of Arizona can name their mountains after the members of the Dave Clark Five for all I care. I am speaking of the term "squaw." There was once a Cher song called "Half-Breed" in which the term squaw was used. When that song was popular and on the radio, I was only about 11 years old. I used to ask my mother what "squaw" meant but like the posters in this thread, she never answered me. And while the question has not occupied me all that much in the 30 years since, the answer has always eluded me.

Now I looked up squaw in the dictionary and it was defined as "Indian girl." Since there is nothing bad about being an "Indian girl", I now wonder why the term is considered derogatory. Is it legitimately considered an insult by Indian girls or is it just another pet project of the PC police to mess with our vocabulary? Such as trying to change the word "handicapped" to "handy-capable." This I would like to know and if it is agreed by my fellow Freepers that the word is indeed offensive, then I will continue to never use it. If it is agreed by my fellow Freepers that the word is not offensive, then I will still not use it on account that I do not know any Indian women with which to apply it to.

"handy-capable."

Just to let you know my wife is in a wheel chair thanks to a car accident we were in 15 yrs ago, and she hates that word. She is more conservative than I am but it drives her nuts. If the word "nigger" bothers some people I will not use it, if "squaw" bothers some people I will not use it. Just as these words are durogatory to some so is "Handy-capable" to my wife. Out of respect I do not use certain words.

ie..nigger,sqaw,wopp,chink,jap,krout,wetback,jew,and if I were anything but caucasion I would not use the word Honkey.

We as a society agree that certain words do not help us progress so we agree to be polite to our neighbors regardless of their looks or background.

So I respect the people who do not like the word sqaw, and I would be an idiot if I ever came upon an Indian woman and called her a sqaw. Why is that so hard for some people to understand?