More Than A Name

The media is all worked up because President Trump has signed an executive order renaming the section of Lake Ontario in United States territory to Lake America.

I personally think it is silly and needless.

However, there is no doubt that Trump does things like this to get under the skin of others---both the Canadians and liberals in America.

You could say there is a method in Trump's madness.

It is about more than a name.

Liberals are outraged.

"You cannot rename a lake with a name that goes back eons."

"How dare he!  Trump is changing history."

However, their reaction to all of it exposes a larger hypocrisy which undoubtedly is part of Trump's calculus in all of this.

The same people who argue we are living on stolen land conveniently forget other history.

The Native Mohawks tribes referred to the lake as Catarakui.

The Iroquois referred to it as "oniatarí:io" which meant "lake of shining waters" in their language. 

Somehow it ended up being Lake Ontario and the Mohawk name disappeared.

Map from 1774
Source: Library of Congress

The same can be said about Manhattan and New York City.

The lower part of Manhattan Island was a city named New Amsterdam when the Dutch controlled the area in the early 17th century.

When the British seized control in 1664 they renamed the city New York.

Times change. Attitudes change Names sometimes also change.

As has been said many times before, history is written by the victors.

Of course, those same liberals have not had any problem changing all sorts of names in the last few years.

History and legacy be damned.

Here are few examples of name changes that were pushed by liberals in one form or fashion to be more "politically correct" that I pulled together from a couple of different sources.

Sports Nicknames:

Washington Redskins---- Commanders

Cleveland Indians----Guardians

Stanford Indians ---- Cardinal

Edmonton Eskimos---- Elks

Miami Redskins---RedHawks

William and Mary Indians---- Tribe


Places and holidays:

Columbus Day --- Indigenous Peoples’ Day

Robert E. Lee High School --- John Lewis High

Jefferson Davis Highway--- Richmond Highway

Mount McKinley --- Denali

Fort Bragg ---Fort Liberty

Fort Hood --- Fort Cavazos

Fort Benning---Fort Moore

Fort Gordon---Fort Eisenhower

Brands and institutions:

Boy Scouts of America --- Scouting America

Aunt Jemima ---Pearl Milling Company

Uncle Ben’s --- Ben’s Original

Eskimo Pie --- Edy’s Pie

Land O’Lakes --- kept the land, dropped the Indian

Language and Terms:

Illegal alien --- undocumented immigrant

Hispanic --- Latinx (a term Hispanics never asked for and don’t use)

Mother ---- birthing person

Breastfeeding --- chestfeeding

Inmate / prisoner / convict --- justice-involved person

Ex-con --- returning citizen

Fat --- plus-sized

Master bedroom --- primary bedroom

Shooter---trigger puller

To put all of this in better context, compare the number of official geographic name changes made by the Biden administration compared to what the Trump administration had done prior to renaming Lake Ontario.

Most of the Biden era changes involved the removal of "Squaw" as a geographic name.

Until I did research for this blog post I did not know there was anything offensive about the word "Squaw".

 

In school I was taught that it just referred to a Native American female, most particularly a young, maiden woman.

I did not know that it was now considered a derogatory word.

Who knew? All of my contemporaries I asked about it did not know it was offensive either.

As a result, the Biden administration decided that "Squaw" had to be eliminated anywhere it was used in the name of a geographic location in the United States.

For example, Squaw Valley in California was renamed Yokuts Valley.

Squaw Lake in Colorado became Grizzly Lake.

Squaw Island in Wisconsin became Keyes Island.

This must also explain why "Mia" the Indian woman who graced the Land O Lakes packaging was eliminated several years ago.

Which packaging is more appealing? 

Admittedly, the Trump name changes (now 3) are higher profile but the bigger point is that time changes as does the acceptance of certain names.

It is just another example of how biased  and selective the outrage can be about names, history and legacies.

And a reminder there is always more than a name involved in these situations that usually can be traced back to politics in some form or fashion.