Signs coming down on deadline Counties and towns have until Feb. 11 to replace the word 'squaw' on site names.

By ANN S. KIM The Associated Press

Copyright © 2001 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

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That means Big Squaw Township will become Big Moose Township and Big Squaw Pond will become Big Moose Pond. The new names will only add to the ubiquitous presence of moose in Piscataquis County, which is already home to the 32-mile-long Moosehead Lake and where there are probably more moose than people.

"Basically, we voted to replace the word squaw with the word moose," said Eben DeWitt, chairman of the county commissioners.

The state law gives county and municipal officials until Feb. 11 to change the names of places containing the words "squaw" or "squa." The measure was adopted after American Indians testified that the word is offensive to them because it's been used to mean a woman of loose morals.

Piscataquis County officials approved using "moose" for several townships, mountains and waterways after a request for guidance from local residents yielded few serious suggestions. An exception was Little Squaw Township, which wanted to be named Moosehead Junction.

Aroostook County opted to deal with "squa" -- which was deemed offensive because its pronunciation could be mistaken for "squaw" -- by removing the space between it and the next syllable, "pan," in a half-dozen names. Thus Squa Pan Lake becomes Squapan Lake, and so on.

Squapan is acceptable because it means bear den, says Donald Soctomah, the Passamaquoddy Tribe's representative in the Legislature and the bill's sponsor.

The Passamaquoddy Tribe also changed a name in a parcel of land it bought in western Maine. Based on ideas from children at two grammar schools, Squaw Pond became Sipun, the Passamaquoddy word for blackfly.

More complicated is Big Squaw Mountain.

The mountain will be called Big Moose Mountain, but the ski resort on it will still be called Big Squaw Mountain Resort.

Private enterprises are not affected by the law. The owner, James Confalone, says he sees nothing wrong with the name and does not plan to change it. None of the backers of Maine's law have contacted him about changing the name, he said.

The resort notwithstanding, American Indians have made inroads in eliminating use of the word "squaw" as a name.

Maine joins the Canadian province of British Columbia, along with Minnesota and Montana, in adopting separate measures to remove "squaw" from public site names.

But even with the new law, it will take some more effort to remove signs of the past. Two highway signs with the word remain on Interstate 95 and on the Maine Turnpike, and Soctomah says it will take another bill to take them down.

But some of the road signs that contain the word "squaw" already have begun disappearing as souvenir-hunters seek collector items.

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