The Department of the Interior removed the five-letter word beginning with “sq—,” once used to describe an American Indian woman from nearly 650 geographical features nationwide last week.
In a release from Interior Secretary Deb Halaand, she said she felt a “deep obligation” to use her platform to “ensure public lands and waters are accessible and welcoming,” which starts with “removing racist and derogatory names that have graced federal locations for far too long.”
Minnesota enacted a state law removing the name from most lakes in Minnesota back in the 1990s, but one lake in Minnesota near Pine City will have a federal name change.
Manidoons Zaaga’igan Zhaawanong is the new name for a lake near Pine City.
The Board on Geographic Names voted on the final replacement names, after a months-long effort of a task force including representatives from the Bureau of Indian Affairs; Bureau of Land Management; Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement; National Park Service; Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Civil Rights; Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement; the U.S. Geological Survey; and the Department of Agriculture’s U.S. Forest Service.
On-air news announcements indicated two lakes in MN were renamed, but the new Apple Lake near Somerset is actually in Wisconsin.
