Story County officials recommend potential names for Squaw Creek
NEVADA, Ia. — In the Story County Board of Supervisors’ recommendation to the U.S. Board of Geographic Names (BGN) for a potential name change of Squaw Creek, the 42-mile-long tributary of the South Skunk River, the board offered two alternative names for consideration — Ioway Creek and Sauk Creek.
The Ioway tribe, also known as the Iowa and Baxoje, has lived for the majority of its recorded history in what is known as present-day Iowa. The Sauk is a group of Algonquian-speaking North American Indians with three federally recognized tribes, together with the Meskwaki, located in Iowa, Oklahoma and Kansas.
“I found that Sauk came off my tongue more easily, in relation to the conversion from Squaw (Creek),” Supervisor Lauris Olson said during Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors’ meeting. “Ioway, that is historically more accurate. They were the first Native American tribe clearly identified with the area.”
Olson said, by proposing both names to the BGN, it will allow other government entities to offer additional names in their recommendations.
At their Dec. 3 board meeting, the supervisors came up with a list of six naming possibilities to honor various Native American tribes and language, such as the Ioway, Meskwaki, Sauk and Baxoje, as well as terms including Inage (woman) and Nekwa (mother).
One of the points of emphasis from the board, in regards to a potential name, was selecting a name that honors the Native American tribes relevant to Iowa, and one that is easier for residents to pronounce.
In an application to the BGN, Jasmine Martin, of Ames, proposed a name change of Squaw Creek, due to the offensive nature of the term Squaw to American Indians.
“Individuals of Native American descent have protested the name of this stream beginning at least in the 1990s, and it is known that the current name has an offensive connotation,” she said.
Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary defines the term as “often offensive: an American Indian woman” and “usually disparaging: woman, wife.”
The board, along with other entities such as Ames City Council, Boone and Hamilton counties, where the tributary flows through, rejected Martin’s proposal to rename the Creek after Judge Joesph Story, the namesake of the county, due to the creek’s proximity and flow-rate in the county.
Martin states the proposed name is fitting because “Story County is the county of (by far) the highest population through which this stream flows.
Board chair Linda Murken said feedback from other entities and local input balked at the Story Creek namesake.
“What I got in terms of feedback ... I had almost nobody who thought Story Creek was a good idea,” Murken said. “We’ve already honored Joseph Story by naming it Story County ... the second thing is that the creek doesn’t just run through Story County.”
The first reference of Squaw Creek has appeared on United States Geological Survey maps since 1912, and does not directly violate rules established by the BGN, which is a federal agency tasked with maintaining geographical naming designations. The BGN will not consider a name proposal that includes a derogatory word such racial slurs or terms offensive to a particular racial or ethnic group gender, or religious group.
“Squaw Creek is in almost every state,” Supervisor Lisa Heddens said. “But it certainly is being changed everywhere, and to me that is something that is very telling.”
After a proposal is submitted and opinions from the local governing authorities and native tribes are received, it is subject to a vote by the BGN board. That decision, according to the BGN board, could take several months.