Editor’s note: The Northeaster did its own historical research on Sheridan. See “Rumors abound: who was Philip Sheridan?”
General Philip H. Sheridan does not have a statue erected in his honor in Northeast Minneapolis. However, a school, a park and a neighborhood bear his name. That may be about to change.
Two groups – the Sheridan Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) and the Sheridan Neighborhood Organization (SNO) – say it’s time to rid the area of the name of a man who was considered a military hero in his day but is now looked upon as racist. Their approaches and procedures are necessarily different, but the goal is the same.
Sheridan was a Civil War general who introduced the concept of “total war.” He saw himself as a law enforcer and punished those who broke it. In the case of the War Between the States, it was the Southerners who seceded. After the war, he was assigned to the western states, tasked with forcing Native Americans onto reservations. He was largely celebrated in his day. After the war and after his death in 1888, statues were erected and places were named for him.
Part of a trend
Renaming places, buildings and organizations has been happening in Minneapolis for a few years. In 2016, students at Alexander Ramsey Middle School led a successful campaign to change the school’s name to Justice Page Middle School, after former Minnesota Supreme Court justice Alan Page; with the blessing of the Minneapolis School Board, the change took place in 2017. In 2018, Lake Calhoun reverted to its Dakota name, Bde Maka Ska.
Name changes are taking place elsewhere. In Mendota Heights, the West St. Paul-Mendota Heights-Eagan school district is reconsidering the name of Henry Sibley High School. And in San Francisco, one-third of the city’s schools are under scrutiny for historical associations with genocide, slavery, colonization or other injustices. Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., are on the list.
The nonprofit group, The Sheridan Story, has already changed its name to Every Meal.
Sheridan School
The first Sheridan school was a wood-framed building on the corner of University and Broadway. It opened in 1896, eight years after Sheridan’s death. The 23-room building didn’t last long. It was deemed a fire hazard and was torn down and replaced by the current building in 1932.
Sheridan PTO President Alison Thompson said in an email that the PTO has been talking about a name change for a few years. The issue has new urgency now. “We feel that General Philip Sheridan does not represent our values or our students,” she wrote. “His actions to the Indigenous people during the American Indian War [were] vile. The combination of George Floyd and the District’s redesign, which will change part of our student body, made it important that we push for change now. We are committed to equitably serving all students through a social justice lens.”
While students led the charge at Justice Page, the impetus for change at Sheridan comes from adults. They base their arguments on a PBS episode of “New Perspectives on the West” and information on a Wikipedia page. In addition to his actions on the frontier, they also cite a quotation which Sheridan may or may not have uttered (historians are at odds about it, and Sheridan denied ever saying it): “The only good Indians I ever saw are dead.”
In September, the PTO sent a letter of intent to the change the school’s name to the Minneapolis Board of Education and holds virtual meetings every other week to discuss the name change.
Minneapolis Public Schools board member Jenny Arneson said MPS has been anticipating name changes, and has come up with a policy for outlining the process of making them. “We see a nation-wide reckoning with who we honor with names, and our board felt it was time for us to join this broader conversation rather than wait for one-off discussions at the school level,” she said in an email. “We recognize that these are difficult conversations, especially in schools with a long history under a particular name. We want to be deliberate but ultimately, we want to ensure the people we honor through school names reflect our city’s values.”
Arneson noted that, under the district’s Comprehensive District Design, Sheridan is due to become a total Spanish immersion school, and a name change at that time would be appropriate. She added that MPS proposes to add ethnic studies as a curriculum requirement.
Thompson said students have a say in the matter through their student leadership group, Student Voices.
The PTO hopes to complete its name change by end of the 2020-21 school year to welcome students to the renamed school in the fall. To do so, they’ll have to come up with a list of names to present to a city-wide committee that will make recommendations on name changes to the MPS board, which reserves the right to name, rename, or retire the name of any building owned by the district.
Arneson is looking for people to serve on that committee. Participants must live in District 1 (all of Northeast and Southeast Como, Marcy Holmes and Prospect Park). High school students are welcome if they attend an MPS school. Contact her at jenny.arneson@mpls.k12.mn.us.
Sheridan neighborhood
No one seems to be sure when the surrounding neighborhood took on the Sheridan moniker, but naming it after the school seems like a convenient choice.
SNO is basing its name change campaign on the school’s research, but is not necessarily tying its name change proposal to the school’s. They have published an online survey for people who live and work in the neighborhood. Early responses indicate a preference for a name from the Indigenous culture; committee members are reaching out to the Dakota community to learn more about the people who inhabited the area before white contact. The survey, at https://www.sheridanneighborhood.org/news/name-change, will run until Dec. 31.
While SNO can name itself anything it wants, any change of the neighborhood name would have to go through the City Council.
Sheridan Memorial Park
SNO has also wondered about changing the name of Sheridan Memorial Park.
The park at 1300 Water Street is actually the second Sheridan Park in the area, according to Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) history. The first was located at what is now the school playground. Today’s Sheridan Memorial Park is on part of the site of the former Grain Belt Brewery. The foundry that once existed on the site was demolished in 1997.
In 1995, a group of World War II veterans from Northeast, led by Ed Karbo, Sr., began looking for a site along the Mississippi River to commemorate war veterans. They joined forces with SNO in 2005 and approached the park board about locating the memorial in what became Sheridan Memorial Park in Above the Falls Regional Park. The park’s grand opening was celebrated in 2014.
MPRB Director of Communications Dawn Sommers said MPRB has its own criteria for naming or renaming parks. They can be based on geography or history appropriate to the site; named after an individual who has made a significant contribution to the Minneapolis Park Board (ex: Theodore Wirth); or named for someone who has promoted causes and goals similar to MPRB’s. Proposals must be made in writing, and the name change cannot occur until two years have passed since the nomination.
Below: General Philip Sheridan (Library of Congress photo)
