Okanogan County quickly replaced the former Squaw Creek Road signs with new signs for the renamed Hunter Mountain Road.
New name follows designation of Swaram Creek by state board
By Marcy Stamper
New signs cementing the elimination of the word “squaw” from place names in the Methow Valley are already installed, following the county commissioners’ decision last week to rename Squaw Creek Road as Hunter Mountain Road.
Commissioners Andy Hover and Chris Branch acted on a petition signed by virtually all the residents and property owners on the road, which starts on Highway 153, about 3 miles south of Methow, and climbs for 2.2 miles to the National Forest boundary. “It appears the local residents prefer the name change,” they said in the ordinance approving the change. Commissioner Jim DeTro was absent.
The decision to rename the road came just a few weeks after a state board elected to rename Squaw Creek, which runs along the road, as Swaram Creek, restoring the Salish name used by Methow Indians more than 100 years ago.
The commissioners heard testimony from five people and received 11 letters from the public, all but two in favor of changing the name to Hunter Mountain, for a nearby mountain.
Many called Hunter Creek a compromise that would remove an offensive term and unite a community still trying to recover from destructive wildfires. One called Hunter Mountain “a win-win for all parties.”
Many property owners on the road wrote the commissioners about their long connection to the place they called Squaw Creek. “This is our home, this is our identity,” wrote Tammy Divis, who described “amazing childhood memories” of sledding and hiking on the road.
While property owners didn’t want to change the road name, Divis said Hunter Mountain Road “takes into consideration those offended by the word Squaw and it also respects the mutually agreed upon decision of the longtime and current landowners.”
Barbara Rains said she and her neighbors were offended that the Swaram Creek change had been proposed by people who don’t live on their road and therefore don’t have their connection to what she called “our little private valley.”
Road referendum
Some dismissed the controversy and wrote that “you have to choose to be offended” by a word. “Banning a word only gives it that much more power,” said Taylor Rains, who lives on the road and advocated keeping it as Squaw Creek.
Christine Kendall wrote that the road should be renamed Swaram Creek Road “in a sense of honoring the history and place names of the people who came before white settlers … in the Methow Valley.”
The Hunter Mountain Road proposal was apparently viewed by some local residents as a referendum on whether the road should be called Swaram Creek or Hunter Mountain road. But because the state board only names natural features like creeks, their decision did not affect the road name. Okanogan County has jurisdiction over road names and no one had petitioned the county to rename the road Swaram Creek.
The Washington Committee on Geographic Names approved the creek’s name change after receiving a petition from area residents and members of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. The word “Swaram” was proposed by a linguist for the tribes, who said it means “torch fishing” and describes a coming-of-age ritual.
The board generally only approves name changes to correct a misspelling or to remove offensive or derogatory place names. In the Squaw Creek case, one committee member called squaw “a racial slur.”
While the road and creek are officially renamed in Washington, for the changes to be reflected on most printed and online maps, the issue must be taken up by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, which maintains the database used for maps. The board is likely to consider the request to rename the creek early next year, according to the executive secretary of the state board.
In addition to a $500 processing fee for the petition, the proponents of the Hunter Mountain name change are responsible for the cost of the new signs, which Okanogan County Engineer Josh Thomson estimated at a few hundred dollars.
