SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – A popular California ski resort whose name included a derogatory term for Native American women changed its name to Palisades Tahoe Monday. Resort officials had begun searching for a new name last year amid a calculation about racial injustice.
The renaming of Squaw Valley Ski Resort is one of many efforts nationwide to address a history of colonialism and oppression against Native Americans and other people of color that includes the removal of statues of Christopher Columbus.
According to experts, the word “squaw”, derived from the Algonquin language, may have meant simply “woman”, but over generations the word was transformed into a misogynistic and racist term to disparage indigenous women.
“It was right and I think it will make a difference. I think they will see us as a complex and a more welcoming and inclusive community, ”said Dee Byrne, president and chief operating officer of Palisades Tahoe.
Byrne said that after studying the subject over the past year, the complex’s research concluded that the word is very offensive “not just to indigenous women, but to all women.”
The resort is located in Olympic Valley, known as Squaw Valley until it hosted the 1960 Winter Olympics. Tribes in the region had been asking the resort for a name change for decades.
The valley, in the Lake Tahoe area, about 200 miles northeast of San Francisco, is within the ancestral homeland of the Washoe people, according to Darrel Cruz of the Washoe Tribe Historical Preservation Office. He said the word is a “constant reminder of those times when it wasn’t good for us. It’s a term that someone else has imposed on us and we don’t agree with it.”
Serrell Smokey, president of Washoe Tribal, said the tribal council expressed “its great appreciation for this positive step forward.”
“There has been a lot of progress, but there is still a lot of work to be done,” he added. “We must continue to take advantage of this progress and continue to move forward.”
Smokey said the tribe plans to work with the Placer County complex and officials to rename other public places and elements of the Olympic Valley that continue to use the word derogatory.
Company officials said the resort’s new logo honors the two legendary mountains that are part of it. And making a nod to the Washoe tribe of Nevada and California, he presents an eagle, a symbol of the spirit world for Native Americans.
Beyond changing its name, the company said it is partnering with the Washoe Tribe to educate guests of the resort about tribal culture. This summer, the resort launched the Washoe Cultural Tour series, offering a monthly talk by Cruz. The complex will also install an exhibition on the Washoe lifestyle.
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Sam Metz, an Associated Press writer, contributed to this report from Carson City, Nevada. Metz is a member of the body of the Associated Press / Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a national nonprofit services program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on covert issues.