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Workers are planning to begin installing new signs Thursday morning after the Minneapolis Park Board voted Wednesday to change the names of four streets around Bde Maka Ska, which is also known as Lake Calhoun.

. But the park board has sole authority to name the streets and parkland it controls. The vote was 7-2.

Supporters of the name change said former Vice President John C. Calhoun should not be honored because he was a strong supporter of slavery and the exiling of Native people. 

"Our indigenous and African-American youth should not have to walk down streets with names of people who pushed for the subjugation of and violence against the bodies of their ancestors. None of us should have to," said Carly Bad Heart Bull.

Park Commissioner Londel French agreed. "We can't change history, but we can determine what the legacies of our buildings and our monuments are,” he said. “To ask me as a black man to keep a name of somebody as despicable as John C. Calhoun is disgusting."

Opponents of the move said residents will have to change their addresses — at a cost of time as well as money.

According to a notice sent to media before the expected approval, parks staff will install “placards changing East and West Lake Calhoun parkways to East and West Bde Maka Ska parkways at 8 a.m.”

The park board said city crews will change the green street signs at a later date. 

As for the lake itself is called, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources 

to overturn a state appeals court ruling 

determining that the agency did not have the authority

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Matt Sepic

Author

The Minneapolis Park Board’s vote Wednesday removes “Calhoun” from the streets and parkland it controls.

Minneapolis Park and Recreation board started process to rename streets.

Minneapolis Park Board votes to change street signs to Bde Maka Ska

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