PHOENIX (AP) - Now that Minnesota has passed a law ordering counties to rename many places containing the word "squaw," leaders of the American Indian Movement are pressuring Arizona to do the same.

They acknowledge the task won't be easy.

"It's a matter of education. We're dealing with a John Wayne frontier mentality here in Arizona and Phoenix," Clyde Bellecourt, who helped found the Indian rights group in Minneapolis in 1968, said Friday.

Many Indians maintain that squaw is a French corruption of an Iroquoian epithet for vagina, although some linguists disagree. Minnesota in 1995 became the first state to require counties to rename "geographic features" - 19 lakes, streams and points - with the word squaw in them.

In Arizona, more than 70 locations begin with the word squaw. Rugged Squaw Peak is a prominent feature of the city skyline and a popular hiking area. Indians favor the name Iron Mountain, the English translation of the original Pima Indians' name for it.

Bellecourt, in Phoenix for AIM's annual grand council, said non-Indians must understand how offensive it is to Indians to see "squaw" in the names of prominent landmarks and places.

"Start calling Squaw Peak what it really means ... (and) things will become politically correct real fast," he said. "Women will demand the change."

The Phoenix AIM chapter in December posted signs showing the word with a red slash through it near Squaw Peak Park, Squaw Peak Parkway and along commuter routes into downtown Phoenix. Similar demonstrations are planned in the future, executive director Vernon Foster said.

A Navajo state legislator, Rep. Jack Jackson of Window Rock, has introduced legislation for five consecutive years to wipe squaw off the Arizona map, but without success. But he said the measure gains more support each year.

Bellecourt said he also believes it's "just a matter of time" before Atlanta Braves owner Ted Turner changes the baseball team's name to something less offensive to Indians.

"They're the only (professional team) we've had any success talking to," although high school and college teams with Indian nicknames are choosing less offensive names more frequently, he said.

Source: The Argus Leader, Sioux Falls, SD, Sunday, March 16, 1997, p. 6C.

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