Dakota selected as name of new Rochester middle school

The name of Rochester’s next school will pay homage to indigenous people who have lived in the area for hundreds of years.

On Tuesday, the Rochester School Board voted to approve Dakota as the name of the new middle school. The building, which is now under construction, will be located on 65th Street Northwest.

The vote followed a public engagement process that started with hundreds of submissions from RPS students. Those nominations were whittled down to five finalists before being put for a community-wide vote.

In the end, the public selected Dakota, a word meaning “friend or ally” that comes from the native people who have lived in this area since at least the 1600s. The student who submitted the name said, "I believe our new middle school should be named this to represent the first settlers of our area."

The announcement of the results was met with applause from members of the School Board, who approved the name by a unanimous vote.

Ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, members of the Native American Parent Advisory Committee put their support behind naming the school after the Dakota people, who represent four of the 11 recognized tribes in Minnesota.

“Having a name for the Dakota people is such a significant step for the Rochester community,” the committee wrote in an op-ed published on Med City Beat. “It acknowledges the long Indigenous past of the area as well as the Indigenous present.”

The other four finalists for the middle school name were Susan B. Anthony, Martin Luther King Jr., Wóksape, and Unity.

The new school is expected to open in 2022.