Two local creeks have undergone a name change as announced by the US Department of Interior earlier this month, West Creek in Clarke and Warren County, and Red Rock Creek in Jasper County, both formerly known as Squaw Creek.

The renaming was part of a project from the Derogatory Geographic Names Task Force, which aimed to find replacement names for geographic features on federal lands bearing the term squaw, which “has historically been used as an offensive ethnic, racial, and sexist slur, particularly for Indigenous women.

The two creeks were part of six Iowa waterways with a name change, and a seventh Iowa feature, Squaw Creek Township in Warren County, has not been renamed because it is not under the purview of the Interior Department’s Board on Geographic Names. Over 650 names were changed nationwide.