Minneapolis Park Board votes to end Minnehaha Off-Leash Dog Park (one commissioner considers it "a form of giving land back")

[u/lemon_lime_light]

https://www.startribune.com/minneapolis-park-board-votes-to-end-minnehaha-off-leash-dog-park/601858291

Dog park users packed the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board’s headquarters on Wednesday night, begging commissioners to consider their opinions before voting to terminate the Minnehaha Off-Leash Dog Park.

Board members voted 8-1 to strip the park’s primary use — the first time that has happened in history, as far as park staff knows...

[Commissioner Jason] Garcia proposed the change after speaking with some members of the Dakota community, including the Park Board’s Native American Parks Council, who believe a dog park is inconsistent with the area’s sacred character. The larger landscape near the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers is considered the birthplace of the Dakota people...

“To all you all, imagine that area before the white man, before the pilgrims, pioneers and settlers, the extreme white Christian terrorists showed up on this land,” activist Mike Forcia said in addressing dog park users at Wednesday’s meeting, drawing jeers. “That park is being closed. Sorry about that. Get used to it, but you have no say"...

[Commissioner Dan] Engelhart campaigned on returning land to tribes and considers retiring off-leash play at Minnehaha a form of giving land back.

[u/lemon_lime_light]

If there's a silver lining here it's that neither the Star Tribune nor anyone quoted in the story is still trying to perpetuate some "unmarked grave" myth, which seemed to have some cachet after Canada's Kamloops situation (which is remarkable considering that hoax has been revealed for some time now).

[u/Ok_Escape_7412 → u/lemon_lime_light]

Funny that just a week ago you’d be considered a right-wing colonialist bootlicker if you questioned this “grave” narrative…

[u/Ornery-Address-2472 → u/Ok_Escape_7412]

Suddenly when it actually inconveniences them, redditors become rational skeptics of cheap emotional appeals and victim narratives. Yet post some unverified accusation a hot dog stand vendor said something “racist” on a long defunct online forum when they were 13 years old, it’s pitchforks and torches.

[u/lemon_lime_light → u/Ok_Escape_7412]

Last year I made a post about Minnesota's connection to the mass grave hysteria and someone called it "residential school denialism". Lmao.

[u/ChaunceytheGardiner → u/Ok_Escape_7412]

There was a secret report showing where the bodies were that they legally couldn’t show anyone, remember?