So. Palisades Tahoe. Um, OK.
I get that squaw is an offensive word, and that is nothing new. It was derogatory before Squaw Valley was named. The valley, the creek, the ski resort.
Apparently it began with a French butchering of Algonquian words for female friend, woman of the woods, little woman baby. And “squaw sachem”: female chief. This contrarian view is from Vincent Schilling, an Akewsasne Mohawk and associate editor at Indian Country Today, making a case in 2017 that the word was not originally disrespectful. Other indigenous writers over the decades have written similar essays.
The dictionary definitions today, however, uniformly paint the word as a slur. And it sounds like a slur in old movies, old books, historic texts. Or if not a slur exactly in its old usage, certainly not a sign of great respect, either. Probably why Minnesota in 1995 passed legislation to rename all geographic features in the state bearing the word.
Anyway, the Washoe people native to the valley don’t like it. They praised the ski resort for at last changing the name this week.
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GENERIC
The new name came from more than a year of research, surveys, focus groups and the best marketing minds in the industry.
For the resort, Palisades echoes the granite outcroppings forming the mountain’s legendary chutes and cliffs, the extreme stuff we mortals only gawk at — the terrain of McKinney, McConkey, Mosely. There’s a thrill.
Locals no doubt get it straight away. The Palisades. Well, of course. But…
