Squaw Valley ski resort announces new name after criticism

Squaw Valley announced its new name, Palisades Tahoe, in a video posted Monday.  

Changing the name had been discussed internally for “decades,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle. But the nationwide racial reckoning that followed the murder of George Floyd prompted the resort to take tangible action in confronting its controversial name. 

“Our storied past will remain, but we are evolving,” the resort’s video said. 

In August 2020, following an internal investigation into the term “squaw” and its etymology, the resort acknowledged its name as a racist and sexist slur and announced it would be removed. 

The resort’s investigation found that the term “squaw” has a derogatory history as a slur used by white settlers referencing tribal women. 

“We have been in the area for thousands of years. Olympic Valley is within the ancestral homeland of the Washoe people,” said Darrel Cruz, director of the Washoe Tribe Historic Preservation Office. “The word itself is a constant reminder of the unjust treatment of the native people, of the Washoe people.” 

The ski resort’s decision has also yielded change within its mountain town, where the term is featured on businesses, streets, the local firehouse and other locations in the community, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

While some residents support the name change, others question the validity of its offensive origins. 

Local author and skiing historian Eddy Ancinas wrote in the history book “Squaw Valley & Alpine Meadows: Tales from Two Valleys” that the valley was “named for the many Washoe women found in the valley during the summer months while their men were up in the mountains hunting.” While Ancinas supports the name change, she says that locals did not grow up with the story that the name was offensive, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. 

For others, the name is synonymous with a sense of hometown pride and historical significance as the site of the 1960 Winter Olympics.  

“I truly think we should change the name, but I really don’t know that I’ll ever call it anything different, even though I want to,” Olympic Valley native Alisa Adriani told the San Francisco Chronicle. 

Now, this change could prompt other ski resorts, many of which serve predominantly white and affluent clients, to be more conscious of the history of their land.

Across Lake Tahoe, Kirkwood Mountain Resort has already begun consulting with Cruz to update its brochures and include information about the Washoe people and their connections to the land. 

“It is inspiring that after seven decades in operation, a company as storied and established as this resort can still reflect and adjust when it is the necessary and right thing to do,” Palisades Tahoe President and COO Dee Byrne said.