http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0331montini0401.html

Piestewa: The new name for sacrifice

Mar. 31, 2008 10:57 PM

I'll ask the same question that I asked in April 2003. Now that five years
have passed, there is no way to avoid answering it by changing the subject:

Would you call Lori Piestewa a "squaw"?

Not long after the 23-year-old soldier lost her life in Iraq, becoming the
first Native American woman to die in combat while serving in the U.S.
military, I put the question into a column suggesting that we change the
name of Squaw Peak to Piestewa Peak.

The people who most vehemently opposed that idea at the time said that it
wasn't the name change that bothered them but the fact that Gov. Janet
Napolitano decided to steamroll the normal five-year waiting period for
such an honor.

Well, five years have passed.

You still can be angry at Napolitano for speeding up the process and at
people like me for encouraging her, but you can no longer duck the
question.

Would you call Piestewa a squaw? Would you call any Native American woman a
squaw?

Because if you wouldn't, and if you wouldn't expect people in my business
to do so, or for politicians to do so when honoring soldiers like Piestewa,
then you recognize the word for what it always has been: An insult.

Not only that, but an insult to a particular group of people that can be
corrected by honoring a worthy representative of that group.

Next week, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, a federal entity, is
scheduled to vote on whether to formally adopt Piestewa Peak as the name
for one of Phoenix's most visible natural landmarks.

One of the people who plans to be there for the event is Ernest Martinez,
who works with a volunteer group calling itself the Piestewa Memorial
Committee.

"Lori's death has proven to be a historically defining moment throughout
the country," he told me. "She is first on many lists. Lori's death also
had a profound impact on many people in Arizona and the nation, especially
on the American Indian community. Her death brought people from all walks
of life and ethnicities together. Over the past five years, awareness and
appreciation for what she did has grown. She is now in history books and
school textbooks."

Martinez understands that for people who have lived in Arizona a long time,
Squaw Peak may always be Squaw Peak, no matter what it's called officially.
Old habits, I guess.

He knows as well that there are those who don't believe in the change
because they say Squaw Peak wasn't meant to be derogatory.

"That is OK," he said. "Some in our committee feel that (opponents) have no
malicious intent but do lack an understanding of just how offensive the
Squaw Peak word is to American Indians in general and to women."

Then there are those who seem determined simply to add insult to insult,
people like the man who sent me the following e-mail on Monday concerning
Piestewa Peak:

"I think the current name means 'woman with illegitimate children who
drives a truck badly.'"

Kinder critics of the name change suggest that it isn't proper to single
out any one member of the military, with some suggesting that we call the
local mountain "Soldiers Peak."

I understand the sentiment, though in this case singling out a particular
soldier's sacrifice is the right thing to do. In the end, I'd guess that
most of us would agree with the woman who left this message on my blog
Monday:

"I'd be happy to name every mountain and hill in this country after a
fallen soldier, but unfortunately we'd probably run out of hills before we
ran out of names."

Reach Montini at 602-444-8978 or ed.montini@.... Read his
blog at montiniblog.azcentral.com.