The Name Change
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The Name Change |
In recent years, as the radical activists have been more and more successful at creating negative public opinion about the word "squaw", several suggestions have been made for name changes to the peak. Three of those were officially proposed to the Arizona Board on Geographic and Historic Names. Here's an overview:
April, 1998?: The name "Iron Mountain" was proposed by CDR Associates, a consulting firm, on behalf of two members of the radical American Indian Movement. Their proposal stated that this was the Pima Indian name for the mountain. The board instructed their supporting member, Julie Hoff, to research the historicity of the name. Hoff found that "Iron Mountain" was actually the name of a different mountain in the area. The board voted against the change at the July 1998 meeting.
September, 1998?: The name "Phoenix Peak" was proposed by Jeff Hunt. Hoff was again instructed to research the name and found insufficient evidence to support it. The proposal was rejected at the January 1999 meeting.
April 2003: Governor Janet Napolitano submitted a proposal to change the name to "Piestewa Peak", after Lori Piestewa, a Hopi Indian who was recently killed in battle in Iraq. The basis for the request was that the word "squaw" is offensive and should be removed from public place names. When this proposal was submitted to the board, chairman Tim Norton refused to consider it because a 5-year waiting period is required before naming a place after a deceased person. This enraged the governor, who asked Norton to resign. The governor's assistant, Mario Diaz, called Norton's boss and insisted that Norton be forced to obey the governor's wishes. The boss wisely refused.
The governor made it known to all board members, 7 out of 9 of whom were state employees, that the proposal better pass. Public member Richard Pinkerton resigned in protest over the unethical tactics by the governor. Presumably to prevent a vote at the April meeting, chairman Tim Norton did not attend. This should have prevented a vote since the board's bylaws require that at least one of the two public members of the board be present for a vote. At the suggestion of the governor's legal representative, the board decided to suspend their bylaws and vote anyway.
The measure passed 6 to 1, the lone dissenting vote being cast by Lloyd Clark. Clark expressed the opinion that most of the Board members are state employees and were voting because their jobs depended on it. Also at this meeting, Norton was voted out as chairman and was replaced by Linda Strock.
Several rules and procedures were broken at this meeting, prompting protests from the public and from former chairman Norton. There was a flood of public comments on the issue, overwhelmingly against the name change and the governor's unethical methods. The next meeting was scheduled by Chairwoman Strock for July 2, 2003 even though she knew Norton would not be able to attend on that date. At that meeting Pinkerton had been replaced by Alyce Sadongei and the board re-voted on the Piestewa name, which passed unanimously. Lloyd Clark was not able to attend that meeting.
Links to Other Information and Comments About the Name Change:
Patrick Reany's "Squaw Peak Forever" Page
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Article 'Squaw' could disappear from state's place names
Copyright 2003 Tom Jonas