In 2022, the federal government renamed places, including over two dozen bodies of water in Wisconsin. These places had the word "Squaw" as part of their names, and the government felt the use of "Squaw" was derogatory to Indigenous women. The renaming effort was led by U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) Secretary Deb Haaland, who was the first Indigenous woman in that role. The DOI worked with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to identify places that needed name changes and collect replacement names.
In Phillips, Squaw Creek became Aabajijiwani-ziibiinsing, Squaw Creek Flowage became Aabajijiwang Flowage, and Lower Squaw Creek Flowage was renamed to Lower Aabajijiwang Flowage.
Over two years later, Squaw Creek Road in Phillips has been renamed. The Town of Worcester recognized that the road is locally referred to as "Rollercoaster Road" due to all of its hills. Initially, people supported that replacement name, but those living on the road stated they did not prefer that name. For years, property owners on the former Squaw Creek Road have witnessed erratic driving on their road and did not want more people to be enticed to use the road, speed, and potentially cause an accident.
Instead, the property owners suggested Hills Road. The Town of Worcester Board passed an ordinance effective on January 1, 2025 for this name change. Squaw Creek Road is now known as Hills Road.
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UPDATED 1-9-2025: TOWN OF WORCESTER EXPLAINS WHY SQUAW CREEK ROAD WAS RENAMED
According to the Town of Worcester clerk/treasurer, "To rename Squaw Creek Road to Hills Road was a town board decision, but the name was voted on by the people of the community and several homeowners who live on the road. We felt that it was better to be proactive than to wait until somebody ordered us to make a change. Current US government communications typically do not use the word "squaw;" instead writing it as "sq**w," because the word "sq**w" is deeply offensive. While nobody forced us to make the change, we felt that it was only a matter of time until somebody did or the government changed the road name to Aabajijiwani-ziibiinsing (which would be very hard for the homeowners to pronounce and have to write every time they wrote their address). In addition, the old road name no longer was relevant to the new creek name.
"We originally sent out letters to the Squaw Creek Road homeowners, mentioning we would be changing the name to Rollercoaster Road since the road is very well-known by that name already, and members of the town meetings also agreed that that was a good name. We received feedback from the homeowners that they did not want the road to be changed to Rollercoaster Road because that may attract people to drive fast down the road, where people are already driving well over the speed limit. So we held a meeting and allowed the town members to have a vote and say on the new name."