St. Paul is renaming two city parks to reflect sacred Dakota heritage
The City of St. Paul will rename a park and a nature preserve to reflect their Dakota heritage.
On Wednesday, the St. Paul City Council voted unanimously to adopt recommendations to rename Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary and Indian Mounds Regional Park.
Effective immediately, Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary will become Waḳaƞ Ṭípi and Indian Mounds Regional Park will become Wic̣aḣapi. The landscape making up the two sites will also be renamed to Imniżaska.
The change was made based on recommendations from the state's Tribal Historic Preservation Offices and Dakota leaders, according to the announcement.
'We exist, first and foremost, because of our Dakota community, and we stand here today as a promise to honor that legacy and protect these ancestral homelands,' Mayor Melvin Carter said in a statement.
'Our facilitation of these place name changes is more than a ceremonial renaming – it's an affirmation of our shared values and a promise to walk forward together with respect and commitment to restoring truth.'
'Being able to support the Tribes in this effort to not only rename but also redesignate these places from parks to a cultural landscape is a huge step toward bringing broader community respect and awareness to these culturally important places in St. Paul,' Maggie Lorenz, Executive Director of Waḳaƞ Ṭípi Awaƞyaƞkapi, said in a statement.
The change will be reflected in physical signage across both sites in coming months, according to the announcement. The signage at Waḳaƞ Ṭípi will also include variations on the name in order to 'honor the diversity of Dakota ways of knowing and speaking.'
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