Give Me a Break: Taking Political Correctness Too Far?

This synopsis as written below (see below) does in no way give justice to the ridicule displayed on this segment of 20/20 which aired last night.

Barbara Walters and John Stossel quipped back in forth concerning (paraphrased) "Did you know that Berkeley has renamed Columbus Day Indigenous people's day?" and Barbara responded "What?"
"indigenous Peoples Day", she shook her head with a lopsided grin and said as the scene switched to a New Orleans Saints game "The next thing you know they will have to change their name, too should the Catholics get up in arms" and the scene panned to a Notre Dame game and the comment reflected "what about if the Irish get upset?"  She shook her head in disbelief as if this concern of the First Nation's people was altogether much too asinine to comment further.

Well Dear Barbara, the fact is the Notre Dame team DID get extremely upset when the Stanford marching band parodied the Catholic faith at a game in 1997.  The marching band was banned and a letter of apology forthcoming from Stanford University.  Fact is they are STILL banned.
[Reference: http://www7.mercurycenter.com/premium/local/docs/biggame11.htm
and  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1997/10/15/MN69409.DTL]

Further, how many dictionaries did you have to search in order to avoid the most common definition that this term is "often seen as a disparaging comment"
I offer the following rebuttal:
Per lifelong Algonquin speakers in Maniwaki there are two terms/suffixes referring to woman or female...the first is -ikwe kwa, the second (rarely used anymore) is maji-iquaw (given by London and Glaston Collins English dict. as the root for the English term of disparagement).

For those of you unfamiliar with Algonquin pronunciations I will give an example phonetically.  My name "Ishgooda"  is often pronounced by non Algonquin speakers as "Ish good day"  or "Ish gu duh"..the correct pronunciation cannot be written in English...but is closest to "sh'gutay"  the first "I" is not really pronounced but is a guttural not found in English.  An Englishman hearing maji-iquaw  would have heard sh-quah...this means a "bad or fallen woman".   It is this term picked up by both English speakers and French trappers that made its way across the country and finding its way into geographic place names.

According to the Reader's Digest encyclopedia the "reconstructed" proto language which predicated the Algonquin (no speakers..and not reconstructed from any live speakers as it came long before modern Algonquin language) was in the Massachusetts dialect per the linguists (not the people)..-squa or eshqua.  This is the English speaking linguistic professors theory in reconstruction of a dead language.   Not necessarily approved by any living Algonquin speakers taught from birth to speak the language of their ancestors.

One woman whose daughter was recently abducted beaten and raped, tells me her daughter's attacker repeatedly called her a "f*k*n  Sqa**".  This is the common usage of the term in English and as such is not a viable geographic place name.
 

Give Me a Break: Taking Political Correctness Too Far?

  Squaw Lake is one of many lakes, mountains and towns that have the word Squaw in their name. Some Native Americans find the word offensive and want it removed.
                                     (ABCNEWS.com)

                     By Frank Mastropolo and James
                     Wang

March 10 — What’s in a name? That’s the question that has plagued state legislators in Minnesota, Maine, Montana and Arizona, where the word “squaw” is used in the names of hundreds of mountains, lakes, and towns.

Legislators in Maine are currently considering a bill that would ban the word from all sites in the state.

Many Americans and many dictionaries define “squaw” as “a North American Indian woman.”

That may seem harmless, but many American Indians argue that the term implies a prostitute.

The Maine bill’s co-sponsor, Rep. Donna Loring, explained to 20/20 that using the word is “hurtful, abusive and demeaning to Native American women.”

Has Meaning Changed? But not all Native Americans think a ban is necessary.

“The word means female,” says Louis Annance, whose Indian family roots span three generations. “It isn’t anything that’s derogatory in our language.”

And some Indians living near Big Squaw Mountain, a popular Maine ski destination, say they had no idea the word was offensive until others told them.

ABCNEWS 20/20 correspondent John Stossel, in his latest Give Me a Break segment, wonders where all this will end.

Words develop different meanings over time, Stossel argues. “When we change a site’s name because it is no longer politically correct, we also lose a piece of the area’s history.”