Also 7–9 squa, 8 squaa. [a. Narragansett Indian squaws, Massachusetts squa, woman, with related forms in many other Algonquin dialects.]
1. A North American Indian woman or wife.
1634. W. Wood, New England’s Prosp., II. xix. If her husband come to seeke for his Squaw.
1652. J. Wilson, in Progr. Gosp. among Indians, 18. The Saneps or men by themselves, and the Squaes or women by themselves.
1672. Josselyn, New Eng. Rarities, 99. The Indian Squa, or Female Indian.
1701. C. Wolley, Jrnl. New York (1860), 36. Their Squaws or Wives and Female Sex manage their Harvest.
1756. Washington, Jrnl., Writ. 1889, I. 401. Captn. Pear is came to town the other day with six Cherokees and two squaws.
1836. Backwoods Canada, 160. The Indians are very expert in … fishing; the squaws paddling the canoes with admirable skill.
1877. G. Gibbs, Tribes W. Washington, 193. The prairies are dotted over with squaws, each armed with a sharp stake and a basket.
b. Applied by Indians to white women.
1642. T. Lechford, Plain Dealing, 49. And when they [sc. Indians] see any of our English women sewing with their needles, or working quoifes, or such things, they will crie out, Lazie squaes!
1837. W. Irving, Capt. Bonneville, III. 147. They … were especially eloquent about the white squaws.
c. In general use: A wife or spouse. rare.
1823. Byron, Juan, XIII. lxxix. Mrs. Rabbi, the rich banker’s squaw.
† 2. Used as adj. Female. Obs.–1
1634. W. Wood, New England’s Prosp., II. xv. They posted the English to tell them how the case stood or hung with their squaw horse.
3. transf. An effeminate or weak person.
1807. Pike, Sources Mississ. (1810), 20. I directed my interpreter to ask how many scalps they had taken, they replied ‘none’; he added they were all squaws, for which I reprimanded him.
c. 1890. A. Welcker, Tales West, 24. By way of expressing their utter contempt for him they called him a ‘squaw.’
4. Old squaw, the long-tailed duck.
1884. E. P. Roe, Nat. Ser. Story, vi. There is the old squaw, or long-tailed duck.
1894. [see OLD WIFE 2].
5. attrib., as squaw-axe, dance, hitch, mistress; squaw-man, a white (or negro) who marries a North American Indian woman; † squaw-sachem, a squaw chief in certain American Indian tribes; squaw winter, a short spell of winter-like weather which freq. precedes the Indian summer of Canada and the northern United States.
1896. T. Roosevelt, in Harper’s Mag., XCII. 707/1. Such a settler was captured by two Indians, and, watching his chance, fell on his captors when they sat down to dinner and slew them ‘with a *squaw-axe.’
1894. Outing, XXIV. 83/1. The short, choppy stepping of most *squaw dances elsewhere.
a. 1901. A. Adams, Log Cowboy, iii. He showed me what he called a *squaw hitch, with which you can lash a pack single-handed.
1884. Pall Mall Gaz., 26 Aug., 5/1 (Encycl. D.). The *squaw-man—the miserable wretch of European blood who marries a Crow or a Blackfoot in order to take up land in the Indian Reservation.
1894. Outing, XXIV. 87/2. A negro squaw-man (that is, one having an Indian wife) who went by the name of ‘Smoky.’
1707. in Sewall, Diary (1879), II. 60*. She sent then unto a French Priest, that he would speak unto her *Squa Mistress.
1622. Relat. Plantation Plymouth, New Eng., 57. Also the *Squa Sachim, or Massachusets Queene was an enemy to him.
1716. B. Church, Hist. Philip’s War (1865), I. 6. Amongst the rest he sent Six Men to Awashonks Squaw-Sachem of the Sogkonate Indians, to engage her in his Interests.
1901. in Cent. Dict., Suppl. (1909), s.v. Winter, *Squaw winter is giving us a good long visit.
b. In names of plants, as squaw huckleberry, -root, -weed, whortleberry (see quots.).
Also squaw-berry, -bush, -carpet, -flower, -grass, -mint, -vine, in recent Amer. Dicts.
1856. A. Gray, Man. Bot. (1860), 248. Vaccineum stamineum, Deerberry. *Squaw Huckleberry.
1848. Bartlett, Dict. Amer., 328. *Squaw-root,… a medicinal plant put up by the Shakers.
1856. A. Gray, Man. Bot. (1860), 280. Conopholis. Squaw-root. Cancer-root.
1847. Darlington, Amer. Weeds, etc. (1860), 193. Senecio aureus.… Golden Senecio. Golden Ragwort. *Squaw-weed. Ibid. The var. obovatus (called ‘Squaw-weed’) has been denounced … as being poisonous to sheep.
1872. De Vere, Americanisms, 62. Squaw Root … and Squaw Wecd … hold their place among the medicinal plants of the country, but owe their names to modern, not to Indian, usage.
1845–50. Mrs. Lincoln, Lect. Bot., II. 181/1. Vaccinium stamineum, *squaw whortleberry.
c. Squaw-fish, a fresh-water cyprinoid fish (Ptychocheilus Oregonensis) of the Western U.S.
1888. Lees & Clutterbuck, B. C. 1887 (1892), xv. 147. We … fished with fair success for the white-fish and squaw-fish which abound in it.
Hence Squawed pa. pple., married to a squaw.
1904. Eliz. Robins, Magnetic North, xix. 324. The old miners had nearly all got ‘squawed.’
