A fight over a controversial name change in one California town has pitted local leaders and residents against some Native Americans, the governor, state lawmakers, and the federal government — and it is only growing more combative by the day as the deadline approaches to change it. 

Native Americans have long campaigned to remove the word “squaw,” a racist slur and insult against Native women, from the name of an incorporated town in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Name change advocates scored a win two years ago after the Interior Department issued a directive to remove the derogatory word from federal lands. The decision was further cemented when California lawmakers passed a measure to erase it from geographic landmarks and other places around the state by 2025.