Photo by Hyoung Chang for The Denver Post
This op-ed originally appeared in the Denver Post.
Colorado is home to some of the most beautiful landscapes in North America, but the beauty of some of those landscapes is diminished by a key flaw – their names.
Dozens of geographic features and locations in Colorado include racist and derogatory slurs within their official names. At least 27 sites in the state include the word “squaw,” an offensive historical word for indigenous women, in their names. At least 17 geographic features reference outdated terms for Black people, and several include explicit insults to Native Americans and Asian peoples.
Unfortunately, Colorado is not alone in having names that reference hideous legacies that mar its natural landscapes. According to the Washington Post, hundreds of geographic features on federal lands across the United States are named after terms that we recognize as offensive and derogatory slurs.
Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland is calling on her department to address this issue. In November 2021, Secretary Haaland officially recognized the word “squaw” as derogatory to American Indians, prohibiting its use on federal public lands and clearing the way for at least 650 places nationwide to have the word removed from their official designation. Haaland also established a task force charged with reviewing geographic and federal land unit names that include that word and other derogatory terms and making recommendations for their replacement.
hese actions may seem small, but they are critical to ensuring our public lands are safe, welcoming, and accessible for all. In its most recent 10-year survey, the National Park Service found that just 23% of visitors to the parks were people of color, but we constitute 42% of the U.S. population. Names alone do not prevent people from experiencing these outdoor places, but racist words and names that insult one’s family, culture, or heritage are in no way inviting or inclusive and can taint how people perceive public lands.
Racist, insulting, and derogatory names clearly show which legacies we have celebrated on our public lands. They are legacies of displacement, segregation, and colonization. They suggest that we celebrate the dehumanization of Indigenous women or discrimination against Black Americans. The entrance signs on which these names appear may say “open,” but to many communities of color, they look more like “do not enter” signs.
Reviewing and replacing derogatory names gives us an opportunity to tell the stories of people who have called these landscapes home for generations. By finding names that better reflect the true nature of these places, the outdoors can be more welcoming for all, allowing a new generation to develop direct connections with nature.
Some may say this move is an attempt to rewrite history, but there is a significant difference between debating the legacy of historical figures and calling out a slur for what it is. Moreover, this is not the first time the Department of the Interior has taken such measures. In 1962, Interior Secretary Stewart Udall designated the n-word as a derogatory slur and prohibited its use in place names on federal lands. In 1974, the Board on Geographic Names took similar steps with a derogatory term for people with Japanese heritage.
And at the state level, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, and Oregon have all passed legislation prohibiting the use of the word “squaw” in place names. Congress is even considering legislation to address derogatory names on geographic features on public land units.
Access to the outdoors is a basic right, and all people should be able to establish direct connections with nature. That isn’t possible if we continue to use derogatory names for our geographic features. Slurs have no place on our landscapes.
Christine “Chris” Hill is the senior director of Sierra Club’s Our Wild America campaign. She is the first Black woman to lead Sierra Club’s legacy campaign on the outdoors and lands, water, and wildlife in its 129-year history. She has a background in law, community organizing and partnerships and more than a decade of experience advocating to protect communities and the natural world.