California will soon start the process of scrubbing a racist term for Indigenous women from location names. A bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2022 calls for the term "squaw" to removed from all of the state's geographic features and place names, beginning Jan. 1, 2025. Within 180 days of that start date, local governments must submit replacement name recommendations; if they don't, commissions and advisory bodies will be brought in to do so, CNN reports. The California Advisory Committee on Geographic Names will work to implement new names for nearly three dozen places, which have already been approved, by the first of the year, CBS News reports.
"The names we give to places in California reflect our shared history and culture. These place names should never insult communities or perpetuate discrimination," the secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency says in a statement. Native American tribes worked with the agency to come up with the replacement names for locations including roads, a bridge, and a fire station. In West Sacramento, for example, the word was replaced with "tebti," a word and blessing translating to the idea of streams that flow together. The federal government is also working to wipe the term from federal sites, and one iconic California ski resort has already made the change on its own. (More California stories.)
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