South Dakota is changing place names. The state issued a request this month for public assistance in renaming five geographic features. The five areas comprise a portion of are a portion of 18 sites overall that the word "squaw" or "Negro" in their names; the legislature has thus labeled these sites as needing renaming. The state has decided to change place names.

South Dakota is finding it easier said than done to change the names of places with long-established names that are still offensive to Native Americans and African Americans. The areas include creeks, mountain ridges, canyons, hills, and other geographic features. The U.S. Board on Geographic Names, a federal board that deals with place names, has rejected some suggestions from the South Dakota Board of Geographic Names.

The federal board's standards mandate that names should remain local to the area; portraying local history or events, folklore, or geographic aspects of the area in question. It also stipulates that names cannot duplicate others already in use in South Dakota or nearby states.

Oddly enough, the federal body does not take issue with or the word "Negro" or consider it offensive; nor is "squaw"-the two words South Dakota was wanting to change. According to its executive secretary, Lou Yost, "Jap", however, is.  Yost did not specify whether the term was actually ever used in a place name.

For example, the federal body would not approve a change from Negro Creek to Medicine Mountain Creek due to their "strict criteria," said June Hansen, a member of the South Dakota Board of Geographic Names. "It is hard for us to come up with a good name," she said. The process began in 2001; twenty areas have been renamed so far, in part to honor South Dakota's large Native American population.

"It is easy for us not in the shoes of someone who has had racial slurs used against them... not to understand. But we need to step back and take a look and be sensitive," Vogt said.

The South Dakota board asked a Sioux tribe official to help rename some areas. They are now asking the public to comment on his suggestions. Some board members have said they can't pronounce the new names, so they're not sure the board will approve them. For example,. Little Squaw Humper Table would now be called Tahc'a Okute Aglehan C'ikala, and Squaw Humper Dam would be called Tahc'a Okute Mni Onaktake.

Another board member said they will help illustrate the "cultural lesson" of the area.

"They will get used to it eventually," he said.