For years, Native American residents in Fresno County have campaigned to take away the phrase “squaw” from the title of an unincorporated city within the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.
The phrase, many Native People say, has been used as a slur and insult towards Native girls, a part of a broader perpetuation of violence towards them. In 2022, organizers scored a victory when the U.S. Division of the Inside, which sought to take away the “S-word” from federal lands, re-designated the city as Yokuts Valley for federal use. That very same yr, the California Legislature handed a measure that required the time period be stripped from place names and geographic landmarks statewide by 2025.
However regardless of securing the backing of the federal authorities, state lawmakers and the California governor, Native American activists are annoyed that Fresno County leaders are combating the title change. The Board of Supervisors has positioned a measure on the March poll asking voters to find out simply who has the correct to call — and rename — communities and geographic options within the county.
The measure doesn’t particularly tackle Yokuts Valley — and a few individuals within the county argue the city’s title by no means modified as a result of the federal authorities had no proper to intervene. Measure B would make clear that such choices belong squarely within the palms of county supervisors and amend the county constitution to present the board “the responsibility and energy to call or change the title of geographic options or place names throughout the unincorporated parts of the County of Fresno.” The board voted 3 to 2 to place it on the poll.
A gaggle of state lawmakers who pushed ahead the 2022 laws to ban the S-word from state landmarks have joined with Indigenous organizers in a marketing campaign towards Measure B.
“Fresno County is particular in that they’ve been very troublesome,” mentioned Morning Star Gali, government director of Indigenous Justice, a company monitoring California’s progress in renaming geographic websites that comprise the time period.
Students have grappled over the phrase’s origin and historic utilization. Some say the phrase originated as a generalized time period for Native girls. Others, together with Gali, say the time period took on a darker tone that denigrates Native girls, relegating them to a subhuman stature. Merriam-Webster labels the phrase as offensive, dated and disparaging.
“Erasure and invisibility, that’s what we’re combating towards,” Gali mentioned. “It’s not only a phrase. It’s a phrase that holds that historical past and that context and that that means.”
Supervisor Nathan Magsig, who represents Yokuts Valley, mentioned he pushed for Measure B in response to what he noticed as “a variety of modifications” occurring with little enter from individuals dwelling within the communities the place renaming efforts are underway. He mentioned Yokuts Valley residents largely opposed renaming the neighborhood in a survey he carried out.
“It is a native matter,” Magsig mentioned. “Measure B is an try and not solely help with that course of, nevertheless it additionally has to do with different modifications which can be occurring throughout us.”
Native People who led the renaming effort say they’re flummoxed {that a} county official is making an attempt to undo work that included neighborhood enter. Roman Rain Tree, a member of the Dunlap Band of Mono Indians, who’ve ancestral ties to the area, spearheaded a public petition and submitted an enchantment to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names.
Magsig is “getting individuals riled up, offended, maintaining it going, maintaining that chaos persevering with,” mentioned Taweah Garcia, a member of the Dunlap Band of Mono Indians. “We perceive some individuals don’t agree with it. We all know some individuals are for the rename.”
Official efforts to rename locations with the S-word started in 2021 when U.S. Inside Secretary Deb Haaland, the primary Native American to carry that workplace, banned the time period from federal land and ordered the Board on Geographic Names to start renaming greater than 660 valleys, lakes, creeks and different federal websites that bore the time period. Haaland declared the time period derogatory, saying the nation’s “lands and waters needs to be locations to have fun the outside and our shared cultural heritage — to not perpetuate the legacies of oppression.”
The state regulation banning use of the time period empowers an advisory committee, in communication with native tribes and officers, to take away the slur from cities and geographic place names by Jan. 1, 2025.
“We stand against this try to avoid a legitimately accepted regulation,” Assemblyman James C. Ramos (D-Highland), a Native American and the invoice’s creator, mentioned in a press release. “Eradicating the S-word as a spot title is about selecting to not use a phrase that denigrates girls and Native People.”
Magsig questions whether or not the time period is admittedly so derogatory, and insists the invoice’s name-change deadline of 2025 means the valley’s title has not formally modified.
“Is there any title that’s not offensive to anybody?” Magsig mentioned. “Names are identities to some individuals. Sure, historical past shouldn’t be excellent, however we have to not erase that.”
Fresno County is combating the state’s renaming marketing campaign on a authorized entrance as nicely. The county filed a lawsuit towards the state final yr, contending the title change being compelled on Yokuts Valley violates the county’s 1st Modification proper to free speech. A choose rejected the declare, discovering the county lacked authorized standing. The county has mentioned it will enchantment.
Kenneth Hansen, a professor of political science at Cal State Fresno, mentioned Magsig and different conservative supervisors are utilizing the problem to enchantment to the county’s GOP base and enhance turnout as they run for reelection. “He’s doubling down on this tradition war-type stuff to try to get by way of the first and probably the overall election,” mentioned Hansen, who’s Native American. “Measure B is conservative optics.”
The Native People pushing to eradicate use of the time period in Fresno County say place names for cities and meadows and mountains and lakes needs to be rooted in respect — not a throwback to oppression. Naming a city with a slur, “that’s not honoring Indigenous girls,” mentioned Garcia, who lives in Dunlap, a neighborhood that neighbors Yokuts Valley.
Shirley Guevara, an elder of the Dunlap Band of Mono Indians, acknowledged that change has come slowly, as was true with the decades-long marketing campaign to get the Washington, D.C., soccer staff to take away “redskin” from its title.
Magsig declined to invest on whether or not supervisors would return Yokuts Valley to its former title if Measure B passes, or search an alternate reminiscent of Bear Valley, which many residents favor. For now, he mentioned, he’s targeted on getting the measure handed.
“The subsequent step is discovering out what the voters need,” he mentioned.
