Native Americans seek to outlaw the 'S-word'
SALMON, Idaho -- Ruby Bernal wasn't self-conscious about her American Indian heritage until her adolescence, when a band of teenage boys called her "squaw" during a drive-by heckling.
"It's like saying the 'N-word' to a black person," says Bernal, a member of the Shoshone-Bannock, one of five tribes with reservations in Idaho.
"To me, it's a slap in the face. It belittles me and it belittles all Indian women."
Bernal is among Native Americans across the West fighting to excise "squaw" from the names of region's waterways, peaks and river valleys.
The 55 tribes of the Pacific Northwest say the "S-word," once commonly used when referring to an American Indian woman, is demeaning and never uttered on reservations.
They claim the term evokes the painful chapter in American history when Indian lands were confiscated and native peoples were subjugated by whites.
Yet the word litters the national map, with more than 800 place names including the word "squaw" and some resistance from local officials who object to what they say is a push to be politically correct.
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"It's like saying the 'N-word' to a black person," says Bernal, a member of the Shoshone-Bannock, one of five tribes with reservations in Idaho.
"To me, it's a slap in the face. It belittles me and it belittles all Indian women."
Bernal is among Native Americans across the West fighting to excise "squaw" from the names of region's waterways, peaks and river valleys.
The 55 tribes of the Pacific Northwest say the "S-word," once commonly used when referring to an American Indian woman, is demeaning and never uttered on reservations.
They claim the term evokes the painful chapter in American history when Indian lands were confiscated and native peoples were subjugated by whites.
Yet the word litters the national map, with more than 800 place names including the word "squaw" and some resistance from local officials who object to what they say is a push to be politically correct.