FishingBanter - View Single Post

March 25th, 2006, 05:12 PM posted to rec.outdoors.fishing.fly

In article ,
says...
wrote:
says...
If you don't know that squaw is an offensive racial slur
then what you know, no matter how much, is just flat wrong.

You are truly an idiot.

Anybody who claims that "squaw" isn't an offensive racial
slur in 21st century America is either a fool or a liar.
And FWIW I consider you to be truthful.

"The English word "squaw" was borrowed from the Algonquian language
family of a few Indian tribes in Canada and New England and first
appeared in the American vocabulary around 1634.1 It has been used in
literature and historical documents for much of this country’s history.
The Massachusett/Algonquian word means "young woman."

"Squaw" has been a familiar word in American literature and language
since the 17th century and has always been normally understood to mean
"an Indian woman or wife." The term as commonly used contains no
disrespect to Indian women any more than the words "woman" or "wife" do
to Anglo-American women.
"

"English and Native American linguists agree that there is absolutely no
connection between the Mohawk [Iroquoian] word otsiskwa (also spelled
ojiskwa) and the Algonquin word squa.
"

You've fallen victim to actually believing the crap that the
loony left spouts.

"
The controversy over the use of the word "squaw" appears to have started
in 1973 with the book Literature of the American Indian, by Thomas E.
Sanders and Walter W. Peek. Sanders and Peek are members of two
different Indian Nations in Florida. Although they are not linguists,
their book puts forth a rather racist and inflammatory accusation about
the origin of the word ‘squaw’:
"

The fact that you've been bamboozled by two liberals with an agenda is
just sad, the fact that you are belittling others who know better is
wrong.
- Ken