REGARDING ALTERNATIVE PLANS:

Friends of Lake Hiawatha support the Hiawatha Masterplan compromise.

We will oppose any alternative plan that: 

1. Separates Minnehaha Creek from Lake Hiawatha. Minnehaha Creek has always flowed into the Lake and is the reason for its exceptional biodiversity. The flow of Minnehaha Creek is critical to the survival of The Lake’s abundant aquatic life and the fragile food web they are part of. These are federally protected waters of the United States. It is unlawful and unethical to separate Minnehaha Creek from Lake Hiawatha. 

2. Lowers the water elevation of Lake Hiawatha by dredging, pumping, channelizing or any other means. This would be a massive disruption to the fragile ecology of our most biodiverse lake. 

3. Displaces or kills existing wildlife residents at Lake Hiawatha. More than 250 species of animals have been observed at Lake Hiawatha making it our most biodiverse lake. The Lake Hiawatha Delta Habitat is the last remaining refuge for wildlife in our area and includes endangered, threatened and vulnerable species.

4. Alters, damages, removes or threatens existing wildlife habitat. Including the Lake Hiawatha Delta Habitat. Friends of Lake Hiawatha have worked for years to restore biodiversity and health to the Delta in partnership with our Dakota friends, carefully restoring plant foods and medicines that were eliminated from this area. 

5. Contributes pollution, including phosphorus or chemical pollutants to downstream communities. It is unethical to foist our pollution onto downstream communities. 

6. Increases risks of flooding or erosion for downstream communities. It is unethical to worsen flood risks for downstream communities by channelization of the Creek and/or by disconnecting Lake Hiawatha from the watershed. The Hiawatha Masterplan will protect homes to the same extent they are protected today.

7. Deprives the floodplain of its natural function through pumping, draining or channelizing. 

8. Creates chokepoints in water courses through channelizing and berms which creates vulnerabilities to mechanical failure, denies adaptability to the watershed and puts wildlife in conflict with human infrastructure. Lake Hiawatha’s resident beaver family could overwhelm a tightly controlled system such as this, necessitating the trapping and killing of resident beavers. 

The Friends of Lake Hiawatha, along with neighbors, and community members participated in the years-long masterplanning process to ensure that the Hiawatha Masterplan did none of the above things. 

We believe it is no longer feasible or practical to maintain 18 holes of golf at Hiawatha. We cannot continue to pump hundreds of millions of gallons of polluted water out of the floodplain and into our watershed year after year. As the golf course continues to sink, the likelihood of failure increases. 

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Beginning in the 1920’s, Rice Lake (now called Lake Hiawatha) suffered under the hubris of the MPRB, which continues to this day. But the MPRB has the opportunity to do something different now, by supporting the Hiawatha Masterplan.

From 1929 to 1938, In a continuation of the genocidal doctrine of Manifest Destiny, the MPRB destroyed all traces of the wetlands and habitat of Rice Lake eliminating food and medicine sources for Dakota Peoples, including wild rice (Psin). The MPRB believed they could control nature by filling in wetlands, and channelizing the waters. They built systems which dumped untreated pollution into the watershed and pumped hundreds of millions of gallons of polluted water creating the unsafe conditions we see today at Lake Hiawatha. The problems this hubris created continue unabated. This is the foundation upon which Hiawatha Golf Course is built and our reckoning has arrived as the ecology reaches its breaking point. 10,000 pounds of plastic trash removed from the Lake by Friends of Lake Hiawatha has not scratched the surface. The Park Board and City of Minneapolis are now discharging 1,000 pounds of phosphorus pollution into the impaired Lake from untreated stormwater and golf course pumping every year. 

Lake Hiawatha has received a historic designation through The Cultural Landscape Foundation. It is also a part of Bdote the sacred homeland and birthplace of Dakota Peoples. It is connected to a larger watershed including the Mississippi River and ultimately the Gulf of Mexico. Rice Lake originally cleaned the waters that flow downstream by wetland filtration just a few miles before the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers. The Lake will do this again, if protected and restored.  

Like Lake Hiawatha, Hiawatha Golf Course has historical significance. Black Community leaders fought persistently to successfully desegregate this and other Minneapolis golf courses. In 1931 Black golfer Jimmie Slemmens formed the TCGC Twin Cities Golf Club/Association with the purpose of desegregating golf. Professional golfer Solomon R Hughes, after whom the Hiawatha clubhouse is now named, participated with other national Black golf figures in an effort to integrate the PGA. This was part of an organized local and national campaign, led by Black Community Leaders, to desegregate golf courses, clubhouses and tournaments. Under pressure from the Spokesman Recorder and TCGC, the Minneapolis Park Board finally mandated full desegregation of all of Minneapolis golf courses in 1952. The PGA was finally desegregated in 1961. Hiawatha Golf Course has hosted the Bronze Tournament numerous times going back to 1968. Some highlights of Hiawatha Golf Course include a visit by greats like The Great Joe Louis and Tiger Woods. Today, a constituency of Black golfers & community members still view the course as a valued community space. This is why we support the Hiawatha Masterplan which maintains a 9 hole golf course and celebrates the place’s history. The course can continue to host youth tournaments and the First Tee Program. 

The solution is not to repeat the mistakes of the past by perpetuating the hubris that the MPRB embodies in the despoliation of Rice Lake. The answer is not to assert even tighter control over our natural systems. The solution is to restore natural function to the floodplain, to restore adaptivity and resilience to face the worsening climate crisis. Despite the challenges we can still maintain historic Hiawatha Golf Course and celebrate the history of Black golfers by elevating 9 holes above the ten year flood elevation and simultaneously restoring natural function to the floodplain. We can also meet the needs of all the stakeholders, not just golfers. The community has been asking the MPRB and the City of Minneapolis to address their pollution of Lake Hiawatha for eight years and despite knowing they are in violation of environmental law, they have regarded compliance as a political decision rather than as a legal obligation. They have chosen inaction and delay as conditions worsen.

We support the Hiawatha masterplan compromise because it makes Lake Hiawatha and Hiawatha Golf Course sustainable for future generations.

FOLH 8/15/2022