A bill to prohibit the use of the word “squaw” — or the S-word — for geographic features and place names in California by Jan. 1, 2024, has been approved by the state Legislature and is heading to the governor’s desk.
In February, Assemblyman James C. Ramos (D-Highland), the first California Native American elected to the state legislature, and Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens), chair of the California Legislative Women’s Caucus, along with 13 co-authors introduced AB 2022.
The Legislature approved the Bill on a 72-0-0 vote, Ramos’ office reported.
The bill now heads to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk for signing.
It bans the use of the S-word and establishes a process for renaming locations with that derogatory term in their titles.
The word is an idiom that came into use during the westward expansion of America, and it is not a tribal word.
For decades, Native Americans have argued against the designation’s use because behind that expression is the disparagement of Native women that contributes to the crisis of missing and murdered people in our community,” Ramos stated.
Ramos reported that more than 100 places in California contain the S-word.
The United States Department of the Interior has ordered the term “erased from the National landscape and forever replaced” on the almost 700 sites using the name on federal lands.
Montana, Oregon, Maine and Minnesota have already banned the word’s use.
AB 2022 requires every state agency, local governing body or political subdivisions to identify all geographic sites, public lands, waters, and structures under its jurisdiction containing the S-word.
These bodies shall file a report identifying those names with the California Advisory Committee of Geographic Names.
The advisory committee will establish a procedure to elicit input and rename locations that have been identified.
In selecting replacement names, local governments, state agencies, and shall solicit input from tribes maintained on the California Native American Heritage Commission list and prioritize their input, as well as the input of appropriate local communities and members of the public.
The proposal defines a geographic feature as any location or publicly owned structure in the state such as navigable water, parks, local roads, bridges and publicly owned buildings.
A place is defined in the proposal as a natural geographic feature or street, alley, or other road within the jurisdiction of the state or political subdivision of the state.