Washoe

(Newser) - The largest ski resort at California's Lake Tahoe will no longer be known as Squaw Valley. The Olympic Valley resort cast off its 72-year-old name on Monday, unveiling its new moniker, Palisades Tahoe. The resort, a host site for the 1960 Winter Olympics, had announced an upcoming name change...

(Newser) - The Nevada State Board on Geographic Names was considering naming a Lake Tahoe cove for Mark Twain—until it heard from the Washoe Tribe, whose ancestral homeland includes the lake, that Twain held "racist views" about Native Americans. As the head of the tribe's cultural resource department pointed...

(Newser) - Washoe, the first non-human to learn a human language, is being remembered as a linguistic pioneer and a "polite, cheerful person," even though she was a chimp. Washoe, who died this week at 42, could use around 250 different American Sign Language signs in conversation, the Seattle Times ...