Please, I didn't take offense of the word being used by anyone here as most people don't realize what the word has come to mean. What aggravates me is the places of business that persist in using such a derogatory term.
Like I said, "I wrote to one place that makes 'Hawks protesting the use of the "S" word." They wrote me back wanting some kind of proof, which I don't blame them for. I sent them the evidence of Oklahoma changing the offensive place names as well as some other sources that should have been enough for anyone to change the name to a "Ladies 'Hawk."
The "S" word, IIRC, is an Algonquin word that originally meant an Indian woman.
But there is some controversy about whether that was the original meaning or not. Some people say the word is used to describe an ndn woman's genitalia.
When so many women of many, many tribes were reduced to prostitution in order to have survival not only for themselves, but their families as well, the term came to mean what it means today.
It is oh so derogatory today that it is not even used by ndn men when discussing the ladies as we men are wont to do.
I -have- heard it used once in a -great while- to describe an ndn slut, hey there are sluts of every race, but it is reserved for the worst of the worst and is accurate in that sense.
The A.I.M. or American Indian Movement is one of the instrumentals in trying to get all references of the word removed from all the place names.
Like the Indin Mascot issue we just aren't heard, but if we were any other racial organization the powers that be wouldn't let their shirtail's hit their ass'es before the names were changed.
We still get the same old spiel that, "Oh, don't you like it? We are just trying to -honor- your people."
If they were trying to honor our people then they would listen to us don't you think?:grumpy:
:barf: 
