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Don’t erase Native Americans’ history

DEAR EDITOR:

Now our society has squelched the word “squaw.” Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

I will say this, “Your moccasins are not their moccasins, as it leaves me to believe you’re heading down the wrong path.”

Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, a Native American, formally declared “squaw” to be a derogatory term, and moved to ban the word.

Locally, Girard’s Squaw Creek might be up the creek without a paddle.

The word “squaw” was around before you and me. At the time, “squaw” was not viewed as a derogatory term. At the very start, history tells us the origin of the word “squaw” has been traced to the Algonquian language, which it meant, simply, woman. But its meaning was skewed by centuries of use by white people, including colonists in the 1600s. The history of Squaw Creek in Girard, at the beginning, was an area that had been highly populated with Native American or “Indians” living in that area, which led to the name Squaw Creek.

Yes, I’m sounding war drums. Do not erase the history of our American Indian peoples, they have earned it — along with the trail of tears.

PAUL R. LAWSON

McDonald

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