Names on the Land

   

   There are more examples this week of linguistic puritans roaming the countryside looking for names to be erased and eliminated from the geographic vocabulary. I don't think they should be. Rather than treat established place names as bits of graffiti that should be painted over, perhaps they should be looked at as we do pictographs and petroglyphs and regarded as something from which we can learn.

 Let Them Be

   The current problem is named 'Squaw's Tit' which is pictured above and located near Canmore, Alberta. Even though the word 'squaw' is an indigenous one, it is now regarded as a racist term and when situated next to 'tit' it is doubly offensive because it is clearly misogynistic as well. It will surely be changed. The half as offensive 'Squaw Valley' in California is going soon and clearly we are more 'woke' than the Americans.  Shame on you if you ever skied there.

   I am not a racist or misogynist, but I am also not a toponymist so I am unlikely to be able to convince you that we should not so quickly erase what has been labelled over a long period of time and for many different reasons. Before you join the protests of the puritans, or sign the petition to have the name of your street changed, pause and read these two books.

   The first one is Names on the Land, by George R. Stewart, who also wrote, Names on the Globe and American Place-Names, as well as other books and novels. From him you will learn to appreciate names, no matter how crude or offensive. Consider this:

   The land has been named, and the names are rooted deep. Lake Mead may fill with silt, and Lake Michigan again spill south to the Gulf -- but the names may still remain. Let the conqueror come, or the revolution rage; many of our names have survived both already, and may again. Though the books should be burned and the people themselves be cut off, still from the names -- as from arrowheads and potsherds -- the patient scholar may piece together some record of what we were. 

   The second book is, From Squaw Tit To Whorehouse Meadow: How Maps Name, Claim, and Inflame by Mark Monmonier. So far, this book has not been burned, nor has the author been forced to erase the title (he almost called it, Fighting Words). Although this book is about applied toponymy and is by an academic, it is written in prose the rest of us can understand.  Here is what the publisher's blurb indicates. The publisher is the University of Chicago Press:

“Brassiere Hills, Alaska. Mollys Nipple, Utah. Outhouse Draw, Nevada. In the early twentieth century, it was common for towns and geographical features to have salacious, bawdy, and even derogatory names. In the age before political correctness, mapmakers readily accepted any local preference for place names, prizing accurate representation over standards of decorum. Thus, summits such as Squaw Tit—which towered above valleys in Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and California—found their way into the cartographic annals. Later, when sanctions prohibited local use of racially, ethnically, and scatalogically offensive toponyms, town names like Jap Valley, California, were erased from the national and cultural map forever. 

From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow probes this little-known chapter in American cartographic history by considering the intersecting efforts to computerize mapmaking, standardize geographic names, and respond to public concern over ethnically offensive appellations. Interweaving cartographic history with tales of politics and power, celebrated geographer Mark Monmonier locates his story within the past and present struggles of mapmakers to create an orderly process for naming that avoids confusion, preserves history, and serves different political aims. Anchored by a diverse selection of naming controversies—in the United States, Canada, Cyprus, Israel, Palestine, and Antarctica; on the ocean floor and the surface of the moon; and in other parts of our solar system—From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow richly reveals the map’s role as a mediated portrait of the cultural landscape.”

  See especially Chapters 3, "Purging Pejoratives," and 4, "Body Parts and Risqué Toponyms." It is an enjoyable book.

Bonus Material: (from the book):

   Some officials chose the toponym "Naughty Girl Meadow", for an area in Oregon, but the locals protested and it was changed back to "Whorehouse Meadow", "officially recognizing the historical and cultural significance of the established local name for the area."

   Even original, indigenous names are not safe: "Another Indian name to bite the dust is Paska Township (in Ontario)—although paska means “shallow” in Cree, the province changed the name after a local Finnish family objected that a word with a similar sound means “shit” in Finnish."

   When the word "gay" began to mean something other than "happy", the locals in Gayside, Newfoundland decided they were more comfortable with Baytona. 

Post Script: 

    For now, Dildo is still in Newfoundland and Swastika is still here in Ontario. 

Sources:

   "Lawyers Hope to Erase Racist and Misogynistic Nickname of Mountain Landmark: Momentum is Building to Properly Name the Landmark, Which Can be Seen From Canmore, Colette Derworiz · The Canadian Press · Posted: Sep 06, 2020.

   For the Squaw Valley name change see this FAQ:

After extensive research into the etymology and history of the term “squaw,” both generally and specifically with respect to Squaw Valley, outreach to Native American groups, including the local Washoe Tribe, and outreach to the local and extended community, company leadership has decided it is time to drop the derogatory and offensive term “squaw” from the destination’s name.

Work to determine a new name will begin immediately and will culminate with an announcement of a new name in early 2021. Implementation of the name change will occur after the winter season concludes in 2021.

To learn more about Professor Monmonier, who is worth learning about see:

His website:

The official faculty link at Syracuse.

To order your copy of From Squaw Tit... and for more of his books, including, Bushmanders and Bullwinkles, see the University of Chicago Press website.