Imagine tooling around the Inland Northwest and being confronted with place names like Pickaninny Prairie, Chink Channel and Beaner Basin. Oh, and over there, it’s Mick Mesa and Greaser Gulch.

Cringe.

Well, that’s how it can feel when a Native American happens upon Squaw Bay or Squaw Creek. And that’s why that place name is being expunged throughout the Northwest. The mini-controversy this triggers – that is, what to name it – is minor compared with the good will engendered by the understanding that the original name was derogatory.

It’s a measure of progress that Spokane County commissioners didn’t complain last week that Squaw Creek was undergoing a name change when presented with optional names by the Washington State Board on Geographic Names.

No, they simply didn’t want to be pinned down on the replacement moniker. There’s no harm in that, since the ultimate decision on renaming that waterway near the border of Spokane and Whitman counties isn’t theirs.

Compare that with the complaints last year from Idaho Rep. Dick Harwood, R-St. Maries, who made the incredible claim that “squaw” was a term of honor, and Kootenai County Commissioner Rick Currie, who said he was tired of all the name-changing.

For years, tribes in Arizona were rebuffed when they requested that Squaw Peak, a Phoenix landmark, be renamed. They finally broke through in 2003 when it was renamed Piestewa Peak, after Lori Piestewa, a Hopi soldier killed early on in the Iraq war.

Soon, the Washington state panel, in conjunction with a federal board, will rename Squaw Creek. The new name will probably be Awtskin Creek or Jack Pine Creek. It would be a nice gesture by the Coeur d’Alene Tribe to back the non-Indian name, since most of the other regional conversions will be derived from a Native American language.

It looks like Squaw Bay in Idaho will soon become Neachan Bay. A couple of Squaw Creeks in Kootenai County are slated to be called Squeatah and Nehchen. Squaw Hump would become Nehchen Bluff.

Whatever the outcome, the mini-flaps over the new names are a refreshing change from the ugly arguments about whether the term was offensive to begin with or whether the offense was too trivial to merit action.

Once the changes are made and a bit of time passes, it will be the objections to change that will look petty or callous. And while each new place name will carry a specific meaning, the overall gesture will always symbolize progress.