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US renames 5 places that used racist slur for a Native woman

FILE - In this photo released by the Office of the Secretary Department of the Interior, U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland speaks at the Sabinoso Wilderness in Las Vegas, N.M., July 17, 2021. The U.S. Department of the Interior renamed five places in four states that had featured a racist term for a Native American woman until Thursday, Jan. 12, 2023. (Felicia A. Salazar/U.S. Department of the Interior via AP, File)
Felicia A. Salazar/AP
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U.S. Department of the Interior
FILE - In this photo released by the Office of the Secretary Department of the Interior, U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland speaks at the Sabinoso Wilderness in Las Vegas, N.M., July 17, 2021. The U.S. Department of the Interior renamed five places in four states that had featured a racist term for a Native American woman until Thursday, Jan. 12, 2023. (Felicia A. Salazar/U.S. Department of the Interior via AP, File)

The U.S. Department of the Interior has renamed five places in California, North Dakota, Tennessee and Texas that previously included a racist term for a Native American woman. Thursday's changes come as part of a yearlong process in which the historically offensive word “squaw” has been removed from the names of geographic sites across the country.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland says in a statement that “words matter,” particularly as the agency works to make these sites accessible and welcoming to people of all backgrounds. She calls the term in question "harmful."