Residents petition to change offensive local names
What’s in a name? Sometimes so much more than people realize. So much more than the name of a tributary of the Allegheny River. Yes, it’s geographic, but it’s also considered by many to be derogatory, misogynistic and racist.
That’s why residents of Fox Chapel and O’Hara have organized a petition drive proposing to rename Squaw Run Road, Squaw Run East, Squaw Run Creek and Old Squaw Road to names that don’t evoke an oppressive past to some residents.
Michele Leonard has lived on Squaw Run Road in Fox Chapel for decades. She’s raised her family there, yet she’s used only a post office box for her mail all those years, requiring daily trips to the Blawnox post office.
The reason is that she’s Native American and her home address is an embarrassment to her.
“Most of my life has been about adjusting to the area I’m forced to live in,” she said. “It’s something people of color do to navigate the injustices we have to face. A lot of people don’t realize the name of a street is such an embarrassment, we avoid using it by any means, even using a post box.”
She and her husband have lived all over the world — from behind the Iron Curtain, when the Czech Republic was Czechoslovakia, to the Philippines and Hawaii. After he retired from his service to the United States, in the military and as a member of the national intelligence community, they moved as close to home as possible (which for Mrs. Leonard was Long Island, N.Y.). They chose Fox Chapel for its location as well as its school district.
But the choice came with challenges. In 1989, Mrs. Leonard said, “It was not on their agendas to show houses to people of color.” But a home for sale on Squaw Run Road did not sell, so the owners rented it to the Leonard family. They bought it the next year.
The Leonards brought their heritage with them. Mrs. Leonard is a member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation, located at the eastern end of Long Island. The tribe’s reservation is, fittingly, in the town of Southampton, as the name means people of the stony shore.
However, not all rocky areas were along the shore, the family discovered. Her son graduated from Fox Chapel Area High School with the Class of 1995, but her daughters attended private school. It turned out their much sought-after high school was “not a very pleasant place for them to attend,” Mrs. Leonard said.
On June 11, Mrs. Leonard took part in the Fox Chapel
Area Kid-Friendly Peaceful Rally held in Squaw Valley Park in O’Hara. It was hosted by Sharpsburg resident Kayla Portis and Mayor Matthew Rudzki, who shared the stage with Fox Chapel Area 2020 graduates and outgoing officers of the Black Student Union, William Generett II and Warner Macklin.
“We got that together in 48 hours,” Ms. Portis said of the event. She got the idea at a Black Lives Matter meeting, and the plan was to have it in Sharpsburg, but it grew to the large peaceful event that included all communities in the school district with the goal of unification, said the 30-year Sharpsburg resident and 2003 graduate of Fox Chapel Area.
Of her own experience
growing up here Ms. Portis, who is African American and Native American, said: “I had to deal with getting on the school bus daily. People have no idea what people of color go through.”
So at the rally in the O’Hara park with the derogatory name, Mrs. Leonard spoke about her Native American heritage and how it shaped her life. The peaceful community event encompassed all of the Fox Chapel Area communities and included a speech by Fox Chapel Area School Board member Vanessa Lynch that promised improvements in the school district and support from Bishop Loran Mann of the Pentecostal Temple Church of God in Christ from East Liberty. More than 500 people attended the event.
Mr. Rudzki said the powerful messages from that meeting — quickly organized by volunteers and supported by O’Hara, its council, Manager Julie Jakubc and Police Superintendent Scott Slagel and officers — culminated in a force for change in the communities.
That begins with a name bearing a word that many heard in old Westerns but has insulting connotations. At the rally, Ms. Portis spoke about unity, Fox Chapel Councilwoman Mandy Steele said.
“Unity Park is one name that is gathering a lot of support,” she said. “That night was a powerful night and [the name] would be very meaningful.”
This is not the first time such a change has been presented to council. It was first brought up 15 or 20 years ago, Ms. Steele said. “But we’ve been evolving, getting much more community support, so now may be the time,” she said.
A number of communities, particularly in the West, have undertaken the elimination of the term from geographical sites.
The issue is expected to come up at the Fox Chapel council meeting on July 20 at 6 p.m. As has been the custom during the COVID-19 lockdown, the meeting will be held via Zoom.
A lot of people don’t realize the name of a street is such an embarrassment, we avoid using it by any means, even using a post box.”
— Michele Leonard, who is Native American and lives on Squaw Run Road