The Utah legislature will consider a bill to remove the word "squaw" from more than 50 state landmarks.
"There's something going on that's not right and we need to change that. It has to stop. This is a new world, a new society and everybody is trying to get along with one another," Ed Naranjo told KSL.
Naranjo, a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute, is working with state Sen. Jani Iwamoto, D-Salt Lake City, to pass the Place Name Amendments bill. If passed, the bill would create a way for tribes and communities to request a name change for places with words offensive to Native American culture.
Naranjo wants to see "squaw" removed from 56 locations in Utah, including Squaw Peak in Provo, "which legend says was named for the wife of a Ute chief who died after falling from a cliff at Rock Canyon around 1850," according to KSL.
Native Americans consider the word insulting towards native women because of its connotations to prostitution and sexual promiscuity.
“My daughters, most recently my granddaughters, they asked, ‘Why does somebody call me a squaw? What does that mean?’ And it just hits your heart. How do you explain it to your child other than people are just that way, and they are negative," Naranjo told the Deseret News.
Nearby states are also ditching to derogatory word from place names, including a ski resort in Lake Tahoe, California. In Phoenix, Arizona, the city changed Squaw Peak Drive to Piestewa Peak Drive to honor one of the first Native American women who died in combat while serving in the U.S. military.
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