PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 9, 2020
State officials have removed an official registry of Maine islands for review after the Press Herald inquired about how at least five privately owned islands and ledges still have names incorporating racial slurs, decades after they were forbidden under state law. Commissioner Amanda Beal ordered the Coastal Island Registry removed from the state website Wednesday night after learning it listed three islands incorporating the N-word and two with “squaw,” a slur against Native American women. Both words are explicitly banned under Maine’s offensive place names statute – the N-word since 1977, “squaw” since 2001.