Up the creek, politically

Minnesotans are ridiculed by fellow Americans for being a bit slow and irrepressibly cheery.

But it is time to add 'possessing a keen sense of humour' to the mix, at least for some of them.

The citizens of Lake County, on the state's chilly border with Canada, have rebelled against a new law which they say represents the worst excesses of big brother bureaucracy.

Last year the state outlawed the use of the Indian word squaw in 19 place names, such as Squaw Pond and Squaw Lake.

The word originated from the Algonquin tribe.

But native American groups had long campaigned for its abolition, claiming it had become racially unsound.