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How Place Names Get Assigned And Changed In Oregon

Trougnouf, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=70137941
Jackson County's Squaw Lake.

Concerns about offensive place names arise from time to time, mostly because the names persist.  Oregon has a long list of places with "squaw" in their names. 

Netflix star Hasan Minhaj put out a video a few months ago questioning the persistence of racist place names, and renewed the focus.  The Oregon Geographic Names Board is an advisory group for the naming of geographic features within the state of Oregon.  Bruce Fisher is the president of the board; he visits with details on the powers the board does and does not have to change place names. 

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The Jefferson Exchange is Jefferson Public Radio's daily talk show focused on news and interests across our region of Southern Oregon and Northern California. Angela Decker is the senior producer, Charlie Zimmermann is the assistant producer, and Geoffrey Riley hosts the show.