Hundreds of US geographic sites to be renamed to eliminate offensive words

A task force will prioritize a list of replacement names and present them to the federal Board on Geographic Names later this year

US officials have come up with a list of potential replacement names for hundreds of geographic sites in three dozen states that currently include an offensive word, kicking off a public comment period that will run through late April.

US Interior secretary Deb Haaland in November formally declared the term squaw" derogatory and initiated a process to remove the word from use by the federal government and to replace other existing derogatory place names.