Governor Tim Walz says he supports the D-N-R’s appeal of a court decision that changes the name of a well-known Minneapolis lake back to “Calhoun” from its original Native American name, Bde Maka Ska. “This state’s history extends back beyond 1858,” Walz says. “There were, and there are,… Ojibwe and Dakota descendants that are still here today, and I think it behooves us to tell that story.”
Senate Republican Majority Leader Paul Gazelka (guh-ZEL-cuh) says, “I like ‘Lake Calhoun,’ but I’m certainly willing to respect a conversation in the legislative bodies about whether it needs to be two names, or not.” The lake’s name is controversial because John C. Calhoun, a U-S vice president in the early 1800’s, was a staunch defender of slavery.