The oft-misquoted and misattributed 20th-century American philosopher and writer George Santayana once warned, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” And while Santayana had the follies of war in mind when he said it, the phrase could just as easily apply today to the Left’s destruction of American history in the name of “diversity” and “inclusion.”
As I wrote last week here at PJ Media, our woke U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, is hellbent on expunging hundreds of existing “offensive” and “derogatory” geographic names on federal locations that aren’t deemed “diverse” enough — an expungement that frankly seems less like “inclusivity” and more like retribution. As a “proud member [of the] Pueblo of Laguna,” complete with “she/her” virtue-signaling pronouns in her bio, Haaland “is the first Native American to serve as a cabinet secretary.”
“Together, we’re showing why representation matters and charting a path for an inclusive America,” Haaland said in a statement. “The Board on Geographic Names (BGN) took an important step today to replace racist and derogatory names that have graced federal locations for far too long.”
The BGN is a Federal body created way back in 1890. Since 1947, it’s been in its present form “to maintain uniform geographic name usage throughout the Federal Government” and is “concerned with geographic information, population, ecology, and management of public lands” name standardization. Granted — like most leftist government entities — the BGN was put in place for one reason and has morphed into something else altogether. Today, with the advent of “geographic information systems, the Internet, and homeland defense,” not to mention a stifling atmosphere of political correctness, geographic names are not only important but problematic as well.
Related: ‘Offensive’ Name of Popular National Park Viewing Site to Be Changed
Current BGN board members use the latest technology to continue its mission to serve “the Federal Government and the public as a central authority to which name problems, name inquiries, name changes, and new name proposals can be directed.” However, thanks to Haaland, all names must now pass through “the Derogatory Geographic Names Task Force established by Secretary’s Order 3404.” The Task Force includes “representatives from the Department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, National Park Service, Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Civil Rights, Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, and the U.S. Geological Survey and the Department of Agriculture’s U.S. Forest Service.”
To commence her woke march of so-called inclusion through federal geographic names, Haaland has lasered in on the term “squaw.” According to some conveniently unnamed “experts,” even though the term “squaw” likely “originated in the Algonquin language and may have once simply meant ‘woman,'” over time, these experts claim the term “morphed into a misogynist and racist term to disparage Indigenous women.” The list of 650 approved and renamed “squaw” locations can be found on the U.S. Geological Survey website along with a map of the locations.
Together, we're showing why representation matters and charting a path for an inclusive America. The Board on Geographic Names took an important step today to replace racist and derogatory names that have graced federal locations for far too long. https://t.co/Ic2MLi1Psw
— Secretary Deb Haaland (@SecDebHaaland) September 8, 2022
But that’s not all. Haaland also passed Secretary’s Order 3405 to create a Federal Advisory Committee “to formally receive advice from the public regarding additional derogatory terms, derogatory terms on federal land units, and the process for derogatory name reconciliation.” In other words, more federal names will be changed and more history will be “reconciled” and erased.
Do not get me wrong here. Am I saying we should keep the so-called “racist” or “derogatory” names? Not at all. What I am saying is, why not use this as a teachable moment instead of an arrogant act of self-righteous retribution and reverse race-hate? Why not learn from the past instead of erasing or rewriting it? Why not explain that times have changed and so the old name is now not “offensive” (an overused word that has lost its power) but outdated? Why doesn’t the NPS use this opportunity to educate instead of convicting, shaming, blaming, and erasing? We know why.
Plainly, if these name changes don’t also come within the historic context of changing times and usage beyond “White Man Bad,” the hateful woke will only succeed in spreading more hate while ultimately and effectively erasing the history of early American settlers and downplaying the hardships of the very indigenous people they claim to be championing.
With no end in sight to Haaland’s “inclusion” march, members of the public can give name change input and suggestions by emailing Staff Director Joshua Winchell, Advisory Committee on Reconciliation in Place Names Office of Policy, National Park Service at [email protected] or by calling (202) 513-7053. Now is not the time to sit idly by.
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