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Columbus Day Marks Collision of Two Cultures - Maine Incidents Reflect Pain, Healing

October 09, 2007 - On this federal holiday, which commemorates Christopher Columbus' landing in the New World 515 years ago, we mark the meeting of two worlds: the native one that long existed on these shores and the European, represented by Italian-born Columbus, who was sailing on an expedition financed by Spanish royalty and grandees.
That landing, on San Salvador Island in what is now the British Bahamas, set the stage for subsequent voyages and European colonization of North America.

There is much to celebrate about the recent 500-year history of this country. The early colonists, their descendants and subsequent waves of immigrants have built a country that is diverse and both economically and politically strong. That the most powerful country in the world is, technically, one of the youngest is on the whole a remarkable achievement.

Yet two incidents here in Maine remind us that the painful aspects of that cultural encounter -- the wars between American-Indians and Europeans, the decimation of tribal cultures, the unfair treaties and plundering of Native resources -- are still with us. One was resolved in a way that promises to honor and heal that pain; the other is a textbook case of how to rub salt into a wound.

In 2000, Gov. Angus King signed a bill in an emotional ceremony in his office that included representatives from the state's Passamaquoddy, Micmac, Maliseet and Penobscot tribes. The bill was sponsored by Donald Soctomah, the Passamaquoddy Tribal representative in the Maine Legislature, and banned the use of the word "squaw" in the names of public places in Maine.

To American Indians, the word means "whore," and it appeared in countless place names -- Squaw Pond and Big and Little Squaw Townships, for example -- despite the fact that native groups said the word was offensive to them.

There was national precedent for the bill: In 1963 and 1971, the U.S. Board on Geographical Names decided to eliminate names offensive to Asians and African-Americans. That board's approval is required for any change to official U.S. maps.

And one by one, the state's approximately 30 place names that included the word "squaw" began to change. By the 2001 deadline for the name change, it had disappeared from street signs, maps and guidebooks.

But not all of them.

In Washington County, Squaw Island near Grand Lake Stream -- in the heart of ancestral Passamaquoddy territory -- bore its offensive name long past the renaming deadline. Earlier this year, it finally was renamed by county commissioners. It's now Epahsankom, or "middle of the lake," a native name that honors the culture around it.

That's the good news.

The bad news is that along the coast in Stockton Springs, town leaders chose the opposite route. Faced with a complaint at the Maine Human Rights Commission that they had failed to rename both Squaw Point and Squaw Island, the town's elected officials figuratively flipped the bird at the American-Indian community -- and the Legislature. Instead of finding another name, far away from the sound or meaning of the offensive "Squaw," town leaders renamed the places Squapoint and Squaisland.

Honestly. Who did they think they were fooling?
Now, facing the censure of most good, thinking people for that obnoxious proposal, the town has come back with what it calls a compromise: They'll call the two places Squall Point and Squall Island. They've sent emissaries to the state and the tribes to see if those names will fly.

Technically, the names probably meet the letter of the law. But we're dismayed that in the early part of the 21st century, faced with a law that enshrines the simple principle that public place names should not be disrespectful, Stockton Springs' leaders have taken what may have been an unintentional insult in the first place (when the two spots were named) and made it an intentional one at the very time they were supposed to be healing old wounds.

Stockton Springs' officials meet again on Oct. 18 to make their decision. We hope that between now and then, they'll remember that what they can get away with legally is not necessarily moral.

Moose Point and Moose Island are perfectly lovely names.

Lakes:
Regions: Lincoln, Calais, Downeast


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