I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.
May 5, 1999
By Devlyn Brooks
The City of Squaw Lake in Itasca County will keep its name -- at least for now.
On Monday, members of the Squaw Lake City Council met with members of a Leech Lake Reservation committee trying to persuade the town to adopt a new name due to the derogatory meaning of the word "squaw" in the Ojibwe language.
But, according to the city's mayor, Art Mertes, no immediate agreement concerning the name change was reached.
"The meeting went relatively well, but I don't think we really solved anything," Mertes, who says he is an opponent of changing the city's name. "Some people probably went away disappointed in our response. (But) most of the residents don't want to change."
The argument over changing the city's name stems from a class project completed by two Cass Lake-Bena High School students in 1994, according to Muriel Crawford, the mother of one of the students.
So, as part of an Indian studies class, the two female students wrote to several state agencies asking about the possibility of changing the names of places in the state using the word "squaw" in their titles.
Their request received support and legislation was introduces which made it law that names using the word "squaw" be changed. After some political jockeying, the bill was reduced to just changing the names of 19 geographic entities, mostly waterways.
Today, according to Crawford, 16 of the 19 names have been changed, including the actual Squaw Lake that the city of the same name sits next to. The lake is now known as Nature's Lake, she said.
"No one here seems to be offended (by the meaning of the word "squaw")," Mertes said. "It's not directed at a person. It's directed at an object."
But Crawford disagrees.
"It's hard to make a stand on because (the derogatory meaning of the word) is so personal. When you say the word it (refers) only to Native American women," Crawford said. "I grew up in Squaw Lake, but I tell people that I am from Leech Lake."
As for the negotiations over the city's name, Mertes said the reservation's name change committee plans to provide the city with historical information as to why the city should change its name, and the city will make that and its arguments against changing the name available to anyone interested in reading it. And the reservation has expressed interest in hosting a public forum on the matter at an unspecified date.
But that is as far as the discussion will go for now, Mertes added.
"(The city council is) not trying to tell anybody here what to do," he said. "We're just representing the majority's opinion."
He said that at Monday's meeting, the city's representatives discussed with the reservation's name change committee members what the city's arguments against changing the name were, and what steps would need to be taken if the city was to change its name.
And he said they discussed letting the city's residents vote on the issue, but added he didn't think the representatives of the reservation's name change committee understood what an undertaking a city name change process would be.
First, someone would have to start a petition calling for a vote on the name change, and if at least 20 percent of the city's registered voters signed the petition, it could be placed on a general election ballot.
If the question is successfully placed on the ballot, a simple majority vote could approve the name change.
Mertes said the two major arguments against changing the name are the expense incurred by the city and the individuals living within the city, and the fact that people who have lived in Squaw Lake do not want to lose their identity.
First, the costs to the city include changing its letterhead, rubber stamps and even the lettering on its fire trucks. Individually, the city's residents would have to change their driver's licenses and any other legal documents.
All totaled, the name change could cost everybody a lot of money and hassle, Mertes added.
As for the second argument, he said, the residents and former residents do not want to lose the identity of their hometown.
"Their history revolves around Squaw Lake," he said. "If you take and change the name, you take away their history."
The cost of a city name change could be mitigated as the reservation's name change committee offered to help offset the costs incurred, which the mayor called a "good gesture."
Proponents of changing the name, such as Crawford, argue that cost shouldn't block a decision that is intrinsically correct.
I was born in Big Fork ,Mn but grew up in Squaw Lake. My fondest memories are from that area, not to mention my Grandparents on my Moms side, homesteaded in the Dunbar Lake area in the early 1900's. They were the Leinonen family.