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Squaw no alternative for Piestewa Peak in Arizona Leaders warn Arizona not to regress to racist insult Posted: January 23, 2004 - 3:40pm EST by: Brenda Norrell / Correspondent / Indian Country Today PHOENIX - Arizona Indian leaders warned Arizona legislators from the floor of the House of Representatives that changing the name of Piestewa Peak back to Squaw Peak would cripple tribal and state relationships, returning them to conditions of territorial days. "The term is degrading and racist," said Fort Mojave Chairperson Nora McDowell, among Arizona Indian leaders speaking on Indian Nations and Tribes Legislative Day. McDowell refused...

PHOENIX -- House Republicans upset with the handling of the renaming of Squaw Peak are moving to strip Gov. Janet Napolitano of her power to appoint most of the members of the State Board on Geographic and Historic Names. The legislation would require that all six of the nine members be appointed by lawmakers, four by the majority party and two by the minority. The remaining choices would be up to the Arizona Historical Society, the Arizona Association of Counties and the League of Arizona Cities and Towns. Potentially more significant, it would prevent any state employee from sitting on...

(Phoenix-AP) -- A House committee today rejected a Senate-passed bill to protect people serving on state commissions from being pressured through facing threats to their day jobs. The bill was a reaction to an attempt by an aide to Governor Napolitano to get a state board to consider Napolitano's proposal to rename Squaw Peak in Phoenix after Lori Piestewa, an Arizona soldier killed in Iraq. The gubernatorial aide had called the chairman's boss at the chairman's day job. The Senate-passed bill would make it a lower-tier felony to attempt to influence the vote of an appointed member of a state...

Governor launching new bid to protect peak name PHOENIX -- The governor is gearing up for another fight over the naming of Piestewa Peak. Monday, she picked up support from representatives of Indian tribes from across the nation. Gov. Janet Napolitano received an enthusiastic welcome as she addressed delegates to the midyear conference of the National Congress of American Indians. In her speech about mobilizing voters, improving Indian education and dealing with homeland security issues, the governor also talked about the renaming of what used to be Squaw Peak and Squaw Peak Parkway. “(Squaw) is an offensive part of...

PHOENIX -- State lawmakers are moving to give members of boards and commissions the same protections they have against unfair outside pressure. Sen. Dean Martin, R-Phoenix, is introducing legislation today to make it a crime for anyone to improperly seek to influence the vote of any board member by contacting that person's regular employer. Violators would be guilty of a misdemeanor, facing six months in jail and a $2,500 fine. Martin admits his legislation is in direct response to the actions of Mario Diaz, a top aide to Gov. Janet Napolitano.Diaz, seeking to get the state Board on Geographic...

A Phoenix mountain could end up with two official names until 2008 because federal officials aren't interested in waiving a rule that says someone must be dead for at least five years before a landmark can be renamed to honor that person. But there was confusion Thursday on whether those officials will wait at the request of Gov. Janet Napolitano, or if they are rejecting her suggestion for immediate action to change Squaw Peak to Piestewa Peak.

Arizona has a budget crisis. One-sixth of its population is registered for its free health care program. Illegal immigrants inundate its emergency rooms and congregate in clumps along streets and sidewalks, untouchable by law enforcement officials immersed in cultural sensitivity training and harassed as defendants in profiling lawsuits. But, Gov. Janet Napolitano is a woman of action. Responding to the fiscal and social crises, she did what any chief executive would. She convened an emergency meeting of the Arizona State Board of Geographic and Historic Names. The Gov asked that the offensive name of Squaw Peak, a Phoenix mountain, and...

<p>Gov. Janet Napolitano said Monday that she regretted the "heavy-handed" action of a top staffer whose arm-twisting phone call contributed to a political firestorm over the renaming of Squaw Peak to Piestewa Peak.</p> <p>The governor chastised Deputy Chief of Staff Mario Diaz for calling a high-ranking Phoenix police officer to put pressure on the chairman of the State Board of Geographic Names.</p>