I hereby propose demand that the state of New York permanently change the name of Adirondack State Park. You see, the name is derived from a derogatory and insulting expression targeted at the Algonquin Indians. Whether due to their misfortune or mismanagement, there were times the Algonquin tribes in New York found themselves hungry, and in those times of hunger resorted to (among other things) eating the bark of trees to survive and scratch out a living.
Seeing people frolic through a park each and every day of the year is insulting given this history. Seeing the name enshrined in maps, books, t-shirts, coffee mugs, loj’s, resorts, magazines and more is sickening – as millions of people profit from the use of some name as derogatory and insulting as Adirondack. It simply must stop.
Oh, and it was the neighboring Mohawk Indian tribe that coined the term to cast at the Algonquins.
