Not so long ago in these pages, I suggested that if aspiring right-wing
totalitarians have really got to honor the late President Ronald Reagan by
naming every conceivable square inch of public space after him, they could
best do so by putting him on the $20 bill, in place of Indian killer Andrew
Jackson.

But we can’t seem to get the knack of naming things properly in this
country, not at least since latecomers took over the task from Native
peoples. Not only has Washington ignored my plan for Reagan – it has even
managed to misname the new baseball team that may locate there. Given the
predominant African-American population in the nation’s capital, here we
had the perfect chance to achieve nomenclatorial consistency with the
Washington Redskins football franchise: the Washington Blackskins,
baseball’s finest. No offense meant of course – just ask Redskins owner
Daniel Snyder. Instead the city went for the anemic Nationals, already
dubbed Nats, as in tiny airborne pests. As if Washington hasn’t already
delivered enough insults to the nation.

But wait, there’s still a chance for redemption. One drawback to founding a
gigantic social movement is that a lot of followers tend to move with it,
and a few of the worst cases from the Reagan revolution will not get off
the idea of naming things after him – something in every U.S. county, I kid
you not. This will never happen, obviously.

But a fallback plan would not only help to render the crusaders harmless –
it might actually do some good that Reagan himself would have recognized,
if we can believe his occasional decencies on behalf of Indians.

The word “squaw,” foul language from a foul time, continues to affront
Indians regularly – most recently in a national news item on Squaw Valley,
the supposedly glamorous ski resort. Nationwide, according to the United
States Geological Society, 893 sites take the word “squaw” as part of their
place name. By comparison, only 82 sites have been named after Reagan.

So here’s a serious contribution to sanity – how about we end the standing
insult to Indians and bring the name-it-Reagan brigades back to reality in
one stroke? How about we change the name of anything “squaw” to Reagan? We
could exempt the states (at present Minnesota, Maine, Oregon, Oklahoma,
Montana) that have already eliminated “squaw” from place names – that would
still leave 690 new place names for Reagan, and that should be enough to
gratify his name-happy followers.

The major obstacle here is that Indians and others may consider Reagan
equally foul language. But let’s think about it. Reagan did a great many
things Indians will never remember with pleasure, including cutting the
budget for Indian programs close to the bone.

But he also signed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act against mainstream
opposition from within his own party, a stroke of empowerment we can stand
to remember him for. In addition his administration tried to give teeth to
tribal self-determination, enshrined in the Indian Self-Determination and
Education Assistance Act of 1975 but little acted upon under Reagan’s
predecessor; pushed for the 1982 Indian Tribal Government Tax Status Act,
authorizing tribes to tax reservation-based businesses and finance
enterprises through tax-exempt bonds; pushed for the 1982 Indian Mineral
Development Act, authorizing tribal joint ventures with off-reservation
private sector businesses; and offered new incentives for private sector
investment on reservations. All were flawed laws whose deficiencies tribes
are still trying to correct. But at least they were a step away from
government provisioning, and so a small start on tribally-controlled
private sector economic development. Reagan declared a national Indian day
and a national Indian week, predecessors to the current National Indian
Heritage Month every November, and in private he had decent words for us
despite a habit of unscripted stupidity in his speeches.

If that’s not enough to convince us, consider the alternative. “Squaw” is
one of those anatomical references so offensive that it simply chills
Indian people; children in particular tend to bear the wound in private
rather than confront its complex message of scorn, squalor and inferiority.
It is one of many vicious words that inflict obscure emotional scars on
Indian youth years before they contribute to the actings-out we think we
know something about.

But at least most such words are so grotesque they never gain national
currency. “Squaw,” on the other hand, has made the cut because it’s a
foreign word to English speakers who never have to trouble themselves with
its sexually-indecent meaning.

If the name-it-Reagan brigades can help rid us of this blight on our
national namescape, I for one will be willing to consider them redeemed.

Rebecca Adamson is the president of First Nations Development Institute and
a columnist for Indian Country Today.