The Department of the Interior’s Board on Geographic Names has voted on the final replacement names for nearly 650 geographic features previously using the offensive word “squaw” including 41 cases in Wyoming. Two of the locations are in Park County.

Squaw Teats will now be recognized federally as Crow Woman Buttes and Squaw Peak is now Kuchunteka’s Toyavi, which is borrowed from an Indigenous language. 

Powell resident Tyler Kerr suggested the name Crow Woman Buttes to replace the commonly used name during the public comment period. The area was originally referred to as “Squaw Buttes” in a 1906 U.S. Geological Survey publication, according to research by the federal government, but “Squaw Teats” became more common starting around 1938.

Kerr said the moniker was “derogatory, both to women and to Native Americans.”

The final vote completes the last step in efforts to remove the slur “squaw” from federal use. 

“It has historically been used as an offensive ethnic, racial and sexist slur, particularly for Indigenous women,” said a DOI press release Thursday.

Department Secretary Deb Haaland signed Secretary’s Order 3404 last November to have the word removed from federally managed properties. 

“Racist terms have no place in our vernacular or on our federal lands. Our nation’s lands and waters should be places to celebrate the outdoors and our shared cultural heritage — not to perpetuate the legacies of oppression,” Haaland said during the announcement of the order.

Haaland made history when she became the first Native American to serve as a cabinet secretary in March, 2021. She is a member of the Pueblo of Laguna and a 35th generation New Mexican.

“I feel a deep obligation to use my platform to ensure that our public lands and waters are accessible and welcoming. That starts with removing racist and derogatory names that have graced federal locations for far too long,” she said during Thursday’s announcement. “Together, we are showing why representation matters and charting a path for an inclusive America.”

The final vote reflects a months-long effort by the Derogatory Geographic Names Task Force established by the order.

“Our nation’s lands and waters should be places to celebrate the outdoors and our shared cultural heritage — not to perpetuate the legacies of oppression,” she said at the time.

In previous years, the Board on Geographic Names has removed other derogatory words from federal use, including a word considered offensive to black citizens in 1963 and a derogatory name for Japanese in 1974.

The task force included representatives from the Department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, National Park Service, Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Civil Rights, Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, and the U.S. Geological Survey and the Department of Agriculture’s U.S. Forest Service.

During the public comment period, the task force received more than 1,000 recommendations for name changes, including Kerr’s suggestion. 

Kerr, who is an ecologist, was “pleasantly surprised” when he heard his suggestion was chosen.

“I was kind of expecting there would be another name chosen,” he said. 

Kerr was working for the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies and was working in the area of the geological feature. Every time he went to work in the area and he turned onto Squaw Teats Road, just south of Meeteetse off of Wyo. Highway 120, he wished they would change the name.

“I got tired of seeing the name of the road on the sign,” he said. “So when I got home after the end of field season I started looking into how to file a proposal for an alternate or replacement name.”

It’s his hope that nobody ever has to face the slur sanctioned by the government on signs and maps again.

Nearly 70 Tribal governments participated in nation-to-nation consultation, which yielded another several hundred recommendations. 

The renaming effort included several complexities: evaluation of multiple public or tribal recommendations for the same feature; features that cross tribal, federal and state jurisdictions; inconsistent spelling of certain Native language names; and reconciling diverse opinions from various proponents. 

Not everyone has been keen about removing the term from federal usage.

Park County commissioners voted unanimously in 2020 to oppose renaming Squaw Teats, saying that “the history and heritage of Park County is important and must remain the same today and tomorrow.” 

Area residents also wrote to the Wyoming Board of Geographic Names to oppose the changes. In all cases, the task force carefully evaluated every comment and proposal, the department reported.

In July, the department announced an additional review for seven locations, including in Wyoming, that are considered unincorporated populated places. Noting that there are unique concerns with renaming these sites, the department will seek out additional review from the local communities and stakeholders before making a final determination.

Several states — including Montana, Utah and South Dakota — have passed legislation removing it from their place names.

“It’s an issue that its time has come, and it just needs to be addressed,” Shelley Messer, executive director of the Wyoming Board on Geographic Names, told the Tribune in March, adding “and that’s what’s happening.”