Squaw Valley in Fresno County renamed Yokuts Valley after more than two years of debate

The U.S. Board of Geographic Names voted 4-2 to change the name of Squaw Valley, a city of over 3,000 in Fresno County, to Yokuts Valley on Thursday after years of debate over the name.

Squaw Valley in Fresno County, as well as many other California place names that contain the word squaw, including the famous ski resort of Squaw Valley, which hosted the 1960 Winter Olympics, have long been disputed due to the use of the word “squaw”. to derogatory intent towards Indian women. Although there have been attempts to change the name in recent decades, the removal of the word “squaw” from various places received a new impetus in the mid-2010s after several incidents of racial violence across the country and in 2020 after the George Floyd incident, which led to, among other racial justice efforts, the removal of statues of certain historical figures, the renaming of buildings, and the renaming of cities.

In California, some places and businesses have changed their name, including Confederate Corners to Springtown in 2018 and Squaw Valley Ski Resort to Palisades Tahoe in 2021. Other locations, such as the city of Fort Bragg in Mendocino County, named for a Confederate general, are currently working on a name change but have not yet agreed on a name.

Fresno County’s Squaw Valley has been renamed in a slightly different way. In the aftermath of the George Floyd incident, indigenous tribes stepped up their efforts to change the name, first proposing Nuum Valley in 2020 and then Yokut Valley in 2021. The name was chosen by the Yokuts because it refers to an ethnic group of 60 tribes from the Central Valley and the name itself means “people”, avoiding any potential conflict over the name.

In the next two years, pressure to change the name quickly increased. Local groups began demanding a name change, Home Secretary Deb Haaland announced that the word “squaw” would be removed from all federal states due to its racist overtones in November 2021, and Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 2022 into law last September, which eliminate the use of the word squaw in all place names in California by 2025. Later that month, the Board of Geographic Names officially renamed the adjacent area of ​​Yokuts Basin from Squaw Basin, further reinforcing the urgency of the name change situation. Time was ticking and steps were quickly taken to rename the city.

Fresno County Superintendent Nathan Magsig solicited feedback on the name change from 1,400 households in the area and organized meetings to discuss the name change, the latest of which sparked heated debate among members of the public. The local tribes also asked about the name change. As the locals were divided over the issue, with many wanting to keep the name and others wanting it changed but not to Yokuts Valley, the naming decision was seen as a likely decision in the next few years. However, that turned out to be only in the next few months, as the Board of Geographic Names set about changing the name to Yokuts Valley on Thursday.

Praise, dissatisfaction with the new name

Thursday’s name change was praised by many, including Roman Rain Tree, a Native American who led the Change S Valley movement.

“What a great day to celebrate Native Americans and our non-Native allies,” Rain Tree said on Thursday. “This is a proud moment of recognition and healing. I know changing the name would be difficult for a lot of people, but we wanted to move forward with them as we make it a great community for all of us.”

The name change also came to the attention of the federal government, with Home Secretary Haaland saying in a statement that “I am grateful to the members of the Derogatory Geographic Names Task Force and the Geographic Names Board for their efforts to permanently remove this malicious word.” Together we show why representation matters and chart the path to an inclusive America.”

However, not everyone liked the name change. Supervisor Magsig criticized the decision on Thursday, arguing that the name change should have come from the community and not through a mandate that chooses a name that most members of the community don’t like.

“The name they chose – I don’t know the majority of the community would like that name,” Magsig added. “The community really needs to decide what it will be called, not the board, not the commission. Residents were really excluded from this whole process.”

Many residents of the city have also expressed dissatisfaction with the way the changes have taken place.

“The name was problematic, and like the Washington Redskins and Cleveland Indians, times have changed and the name had to be dropped,” Squaw Valley resident Michael Hartford told The Globe Friday. “But we all wanted a different name than Yokuts Valley. Many Indians here actually have a problem with this because they said that the term was invented by the settlers and that they use their own separate tribe and not the Yokuts when they describe themselves. So that’s the problem. But more than that, we were not even asked what other names we wanted, but there were some creative ones. It was really a problem. It’s not that they did that, that yes, some people in the city wanted to keep the name, but there weren’t that many of them. It was that they sort of chose a name for us.

“If there is any silver lining, at least no one else will confuse us with this Tahoe ski resort. You won’t believe how often this happened.”

The name change is expected to be reflected on official maps and other geographic features soon.

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