Yokuts Valley renaming is not democracy, but government dictatorship in action | Opinion
Cal-Berkeley has unnamed Kroeber, Barrows, Boalt, and LeConte halls, all named after individuals who were much respected during their lifetimes. Locally, we are being told we must unname the small, local community of Squaw Valley and rename it Yokuts Valley.
I have attended peddler’s fairs, a large outdoor party at the town’s delightful Delilah Ridge Winery, and various other open-to-all Squaw Valley events. I have many friends in Squaw Valley, and believe I can call the current tribal elder of the Dunlap Band of Western Monos a friend also. Not a single Squaw Valley resident that I have talked to likes the name change. Some have spoken rather unkindly of the “outsiders” pushing the thing.
Helen and Forest Clingan’s lovely little book, “Oak to Pine to Timberline,” tells the story of the naming of the town, most likely by the local Native Americans themselves, a long, long time ago. For generations the word “squaw” was quite fine. Byron used it to refer — in a positive manner — to a rich banker’s wife in his mammoth poem “Don Juan.” It is only recently that “squaw” has taken on a negative meaning.
However, the change in meaning is decidedly not the problem. The problem is one of dictatorship or democracy. Perhaps the most important “core value” of our nation is that our government, in contrast to many others, derives its legitimacy from the consent of the governed. Notice those words, “consent of the governed.”
In the issue at hand, the “governed” are the citizens of the community of Squaw Valley — and they most certainly have not given their consent to the unnaming and renaming. Instead, they are being told by outsiders that they, the outsiders, have deemed certain words as “hateful” and thus subject to censorship — with those who are most affected having no real say in the matter.
This is not democracy in action. It is big government dictatorship in action.
The founding words of our nation, “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” remain our vision. We must not let that vision, our nation’s life agenda for a quarter-millennia, be trodden upon by those who think they know best.
The voice of the citizens of Squaw Valley has spoken with force and clarity. It must not be ignored.
Jim Spitze is a Sanger resident.
