The famous Lake Tahoe Squaw Valley Ski Resort in California changes its “derogatory and offensive” name to Palisades Tahoe, the company said in a statement Monday.
The complex, which hosted the 1960 Winter Olympics, has had the controversial name – known as “racist and sexist nonsense” against indigenous women – for 72 years.
“At the end of the day,‘ squaw ’is a harmful word and we are not harmful people,” station president Dee Byrne said in her statement. “It was a change that needed to be made to continue to keep our head high as a leader in our industry and community. We have a well-earned reputation as a progressive complex … and progress cannot happen without change.”
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, ”he said.
The resort, about 200 miles northeast of San Francisco, is located in Olympic Valley, known as Squaw Valley until it hosted the 1960 Winter Olympics.
The complex’s logo is also being changed to an eagle’s head. The new name and logo will also include its associated ski resort, formerly called Alpine Meadows.
The head of the Washoe tribe council in Nevada and California expressed “great gratitude” for the “positive step.”
“Washoe People have lived in the area for thousands of years; we have a great reverence for our ancestors, history and land,” President Serrell Smokey said in a statement. “We are very pleased with this decision; it is a day that many have worked for decades ”.
The ski resort got its new name during the consultation with the tribe last year. The Palisades is a series of peaks in the center of the Sierra Nevada, where the resort is located.
According to the company, the brand change to remove the old name will begin immediately. All teams with the “Squaw” logo have been removed from retail stores and the names of the signs are being changed. But the resort called for patience, as the old name and logo appear on “thousands of places in the resort.”
Most of the “public signage … will be removed at the start of this year’s ski season,” the company said in a statement, “but hopefully several seasons will pass before it is completely replaced.” “.
Palisades Tahoe is the largest ski resort in the Lake Tahoe region, with approximately 6,000 acres of ski space on two mountains.
Here is the video posted by the resort announcing the name change:
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