‘Squaw Valley’ offends Native Americans. Fresno supervisors should meet on renaming

It has been more than a year and a half since Roman Rain Tree launched his campaign to change the name of the eastern Fresno County community of Squaw Valley.

Rain Tree’s reason to change the name is simple: It is highly offensive to Native Americans because it degrades native women.

Rain Tree has called on Fresno County Supervisor Nathan Magsig, who represents the eastern side of the region, to hold a meeting to discuss changing the place name. The pandemic took over in 2020, and a community gathering was impossible. But now, despite vaccines and other precautions available, there still is no such meeting planned.

In fact, instead of taking the lead on organizing it, Magsig has told Rain Tree to pull it together, and then he might show up to listen.

“My goal is to not pick one side or the other but to hear from all sides and then make a decision which I believe is in the best interest of Fresno County,” Magsig said to Bee staff writer Melissa Montalvo.

That is a cop-out and suggests that Magsig has no real interest in this matter. From a political standpoint, that might be understandable: The mountain areas of Fresno County are generally conservative in political orientation. Chances are, most people in the foothills like Squaw Valley’s name just as it is.

But this is about human rights. Native Americans were subjugated by force in America’s westward expansion during the nation’s manifest destiny era. That cannot be undone. But what can be thoughtfully considered are things like place names that are highly offensive to American Indians.

That is not cancel culture. Rather, it is the golden rule: Treat others as you want to be treated.

Offending name

Rain Tree, a member of the Dunlap Band of Mono and Choinumni tribes, put a petition on change.org calling for the community’s name to be changed. As of Monday, it had 19,048 signatures, far beyond the 3,500 people living in the town.

Adding new impetus to his effort was the decision last week by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to declare “squaw” to be a derogatory term. She said it will be removed from use in federal lands and waters under her jurisdiction.

For his part, Magsig curiously downplayed Haaland’s decision. “There are other voices that are out there that need to be heard, too, that are just as valuable as her opinion.”

Just as valuable? She is the secretary of the U.S. Interior Department, and is the first Native American to hold her post. As such, she oversees most federal lands. Among her agencies is the National Park Service, which operates Yosemite and all other national parks.

Magsig was also critical of Haaland for getting involved in the “squaw” debate in the first place. He told Montalvo: “So there are some that look at the word and it’s been used in a derogatory way against them. And that’s not acceptable, but it’s also not a place, I believe, the government really needs to wade into that space. Because where, where does government stop? At what point does, you know, government wades through that space, pretty soon, eventually, that could lead to government saying which religions are OK to practice and which are not, and to me, that’s a slippery slope.”

Conflating her attempt at racial sensitivity to telling Americans what religion to follow? That’s absurd. That linkage doesn’t exist, and it would be best for the supervisor not to go there.

To repeat the obvious: The word “squaw” is offensive to many Native Americans. Roman Rain Tree simply wants a local meeting to discuss changing the town’s name. As the elected leader, Supervisor Magsig or a colleague should call the meeting and settle this before any more time passes.