The park at 1900 E. 40th St. in Minneapolis is known as “Sibley Park” no longer.
Minneapolis Park Board commissioners voted unanimously without discussion on Wednesday to scrap the name, which honored Henry Hastings Sibley, Minnesota’s first governor and a general in the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. That conflict resulted in the hanging of 38 Dakota men in Mankato and the banishment of Dakota people from the state.
The park in question officially has no name. But it will be called 40th Street Park temporarily, until a new name is found through an “Indigenous-centered process,” according to a resolution approved Wednesday.
Park staff are still working to define that “Indigenous-centered process.” But the idea is that some official guidance for consulting with Indigenous community members and tribal governments should be followed anytime the Park Board is considering Indigenous names for parks.
Several years ago, it was Sanford Middle School students who petitioned the Park Board to change the name of Sibley Park.
Park commissioners then passed a resolution in 2023 in support of renaming the park “Chanté T’ínza Wínyan” (Chawn-tay Teen-zah Ween-yawn), meaning “strong-hearted women” in the Dakota language. That name had been proposed by an Indigenous-heritage neighbor. It received the most support out of a list of five options that park staff offered as part of a public survey.
“No additional action has been taken to advance that name due to concerns raised by Indigenous advisors,” according to the resolution passed Wednesday.
Project manager Adam Arvidson said in an interview with the Minnesota Star Tribune that the Native Parks Advisory Council, an ad-hoc group convened project-by-project over the past year, had two main concerns with “Chanté T’ínza Wínyan.”
