Can Label, "Squaw Brand Choice Sifted Peas," circa 1910

Food companies in the early 1900s used colorful, eye-catching labels to attract potential customers. This label depicts a Native American woman--a romanticized image used to appeal to non-Native shoppers. Though the brand name has roots in the Algonquin language, the word's appropriation and misuse by non-Native speaking Americans over the years have twisted the name into a term used to disparage Indigenous women.