Posted on 11/29/2021 11:03:03 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A ski mountain is set to remove a derogatory term for Native American women from its name — two decades after state law eliminated the slur from names of communities and public landmarks.
The leader of a group of investors that’s buying Big Squaw Mountain Resort in Greenville vowed to retire the name upon completion of the purchase, the Portland Press Herald reported.
“It’s going to change. There is no doubt about that,” said Perry Williams, managing partner at Big Lake Development Co.
“It’s about time,” Penobscot National Tribe Ambassador Maulian Dana said of the prospective owners’ plans.
The mountain’s name was changed from Big Squaw Mountain to Big Moose Mountain after the state banned the word from public place names like towns, mountains and lakes in 2000. But the offensive word had carried on at the ski resort because it’s a privately owned business.
The word “squaw,” derived from the Algonquin language, may have once simply meant “woman,” but over generations, the word morphed into a misogynist and racist term to disparage Indigenous women, according to experts.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
Elizabeth Warren Mountain?
Oh for heaven sakes!
We had our “Operation Graduation” party at Big Squaw Resort when I graduated from High School in 1984. No controversy about the name then. Rick Charrette was the rock band. How times have changed since then.
I remember when some people would refer to money as "wampum."
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