True Left

More than 1,000 towns, lakes, streams, creeks and mountain peaks across the U.S. still bear racist names, according to a federal board under the Department of the Interior.

Why it matters: The legacies of sites with names such as Squaw Lake, Minn., and Dead Negro Spring in Oklahoma endure, even amid a national push to remove Confederate monuments and change designations of public buildings named for racists.
...
By the numbers: The database maintained by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names shows there are 799 sites that contain the word "squaw" — a derogatory term for Native American women.

    It also shows 621 places with the word "negro" in them, including Big Negro Creek in Warren, Ill. — and Negro Foot, Va., an unincorporated community said to have been named in reference to an enslaved person whose foot was amputated to prevent escape.

    Twenty-nine places contain the word "Chinaman" — an offensive term describing Chinese American men. There's Chinaman Hat in Wasco County, Ore., and Chinamans Canyon in Las Animas County, Colo.

    There are 82 places with the word "redman" (an offensive term for Native Americans), seven places with the term "darkey" (an offensive term for Black Americans), and 11 places with "redskin."

    New Mexico is home to a reservoir called Wetback Tank, while there are 12 places around the country with the term "greaser." Both are epithets used to describe Mexican Americans.

    Five places are named "Anna," which once meant "Ain’t No (N-words) Allowed" to Black travelers since some were sundown towns — places Black people weren't allowed after dark.