GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION

Montana Geographic Names Advisor

Geographic Name Change Request

Change Squaw Creek to North Woman Creek
Custer County, Montana

Status = Approved

Description stream, 47 km (29 mi) long, heads at 46°17’19”N, 105°29’45”W, flows W through land administered by the Bureau of Land Management to join the Tongue River 2.9 km (1.8 mi) SSE of its confluence with Mill Creek; named in honor of North Woman, a Cheyenne woman who was instrumental in leading her people back from Oklahoma
Location 46°16’55”N, 105°46’04”W
PLSS Location T6N, Rgs48-50E
Proposal to change a name considered by some to be derogatory
Proponent Crow Indian Tribe
Not Squaw Creek
Administrative area Bureau of Land Management
Previous BGN Action None
See also 40004
GNIS ID 777129
Local Usage None found
Published Squaw Creek (USGS 1980, 1991; Custer County highway map 1973)
This proposal, submitted by the Montana House Bill 412 Committee, would change the name of Squaw Creek, a 47 km (29 mi) long tributary of Tongue River in Custer County, to North Woman Creek. The new name, which was suggested by the Crow Indian Tribe, would honor a Cheyenne woman who was instrumental in leading her people back from Oklahoma.

This proposal also has the support of the House Bill 412 Committee and the American Indian Caucus of the Montana State Legislature, as well as the Bureau of Land Management, and State Representatives Norma Bixby, David Roundstone, and Sharon Stewart Peregoy. There are no other features in Montana with “North Woman” in their names. The Custer County Commissioners also support the change, as does the Montana State Geographic Names Authority. As part of its research, the State determined that the Montana Water Resources Division, the Montana Trust Lands Division, and the Indian Country Economic Development Program of the Montana Department of Commerce were all in support of the proposals, while the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks and the Montana State Historic Preservation office are not opposed.

A copy of the proposal was forwarded to the following Federally-recognized Tribes, but no response was received which is presumed to indicate a lack of an opinion: the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, the Crow Tribe of Montana, the Fort Belknap Indian Community, the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, the Oglala Sioux Tribe of the Pine Ridge Reservation, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, the Santee Sioux Nation, the Shoshone Tribe of the Wind River Reservation, the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of the Fort Hall Indian Reservation, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, and the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation.

Comments Received by the Montana Geographic Names Advisor
Montana Geographic Names Advisor Recommendation - Support (Friday, March 19, 2010)
Domestic Names Committee Decision Date - Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Domestic Names Committee Discussion - A motion was made and seconded to approve this change.

Vote: 14 in favor
0 against
0 abstentions

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