AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Legislation that expands a law banning the use of the word squaw for place names in Maine is awaiting final votes in the House and Senate.

The word squaw is considered degrading to native American women. The Penobscot Nation representative, Wayne Mitchell, is sponsoring a bill to take the law a step further by prohibiting any derivation of squaw as a separate word or as part of a word or phrase in naming places.

Mitchell’s bill is a response to efforts in some towns to skirt the 2000 law by dropping the “w” in squaw or combining a shortened version of the word with another word.