ND residents lukewarm on new name for hamlet

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — McKenzie County residents are lukewarm on federal efforts to rename a hamlet. A federal task force is working to replace names of more than 660 geographic features that American Indians find derogatory. One of the features is Squaw Gap in McKenzie County. The Bismarck Tribune reports Squaw Gap is little more than a community hall and an old schoolhouse on the Montana border. Kathy Skarda is a farmer and rancher who grew up in the area. She says her friends and family thought the renaming effort was a joke. She says she doesn’t think the name was meant to be derogatory to anybody or any ethnicity. She says it will always be Squaw Gap to the people who live there.