It was customary to speak of the Indian man as a buck of the woman as a squ-w until, at length, in the general acceptance of the terms, they ceased to recognize the rights of humanity in those to whom they were so applied. Although its origins are in the Wampanoag language where it simply meant “woman,” its use in English was arguably racist from the start.Īccording to Jane Hill in The Everyday Language of White Racism, English colonial setters used it, rather than “woman,” because they considered Indigenous women to be biologically inferior to European women and thereby did not recognize Indigenous women as full humans.īy the 19th century, the S-word was openly recognized as dehumanizing, as in this chilling quote from an Oregon settler in 1857: The S-word entered the English language in early 1600s Massachusetts. It’s difficult to reconcile the fact that our families have used a destructive slur for generations with the fact that they’re decent folk. But now, the politically correct crowd had it renamed “Old Woman Coulee.” Yeah right! To us locals it’s “Squ-w Coulee” and so it will remain, like it or not.Ĭlearly, many non-Indigenous Canadians feel defensive about the S-word. It’s been known as “Squ-w Coulee” forever. There is a coulee about a mile from my place. As someone complained in an online forum last October: Some locals contend that only a humourless “social justice warrior” would call for a cease- and-desist on the nickname Squ-w’s T-t for a mountain near Canmore. For instance, Stoney Squ-w Mountain in Banff honours the bravery of a Nakoda woman who lived there. It could be argued this is a way of recognizing the historical presence and title of Indigenous peoples in these parts. I appreciated her point and it gave me pause as a non-Indigenous linguist in Alberta where the S-word persists and also appears in some of our local place names. Big Head noted that though the S-word has an innocent etymology, “it has become a derogatory term that is no longer acceptable when you’re referring to an Indigenous woman.” This summer in Alberta, Ramona Big Head, a middle-school principal on the Kainai Nation, was called a “squ-w” by an Alberta Health Services employee.
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