Interior Launches Process to Review Racist Names for Geographic Features

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced the formation of a departmental task force to review and replace racist and derogatory place names among the country’s geographic features. The Advisory Committee on Reconciliation in Place Names will include diverse representation from Indian Tribes, civil rights and history experts, and members of the general public, among others. It will establish a process to solicit and assist with proposals to the Secretary to identify and change derogatory names, and will include engagement with Tribes, state and local governments, and the public.

Haaland also formally identified the term “squaw,” a racist historical term largely used against Indigenous women, as derogatory and instructed the department to find replacement names for geographic features on federal lands bearing the term. The Board of Geographic Names currently lists more than 650 federal land units that contain the term.

In response to the announcement, Jackie Ostfeld, director of Sierra Club’s Outdoors for All campaign, released the following statement:

“Public lands are places of great natural beauty, but the names for many of these places mar that beauty, evoking legacies of racism and discrimination. 

“Public lands should be for all people, and that starts with the names we call them -- they should celebrate the communities who shaped them, not slander them. Today’s decision is an important step towards reconciliation.”