A St. Paul school board member is drawing criticism after a social media comment in which she suggested dogs should be allowed to relieve themselves in Christian cemeteries rather than on land considered sacred to Indigenous communities.
Chauntyll Allen, who serves as clerk for the St. Paul Public Schools Board of Education, made the remark as debate intensified over the future of Minneapolis’ Minnehaha Off-Leash Dog Park. The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board recently voted 8-1 to shut down the park by the end of the year.
In a June 21 post on the “We Love Our Dog Park: Minnehaha” Facebook page, Allen wrote, according to Alpha News: “I don’t get why we don’t just make dog parks at White Christian cemeteries if White Christians are ok with it? This is a simple fix. Leave the indigenous land sacred and piss on the White corpses.”
The closure decision has been tied to concerns that the dog park sits within the Mni Owe Sni, or Coldwater Spring, Traditional Cultural Place. The area is sacred to Dakota tribes, and unmarked graves connected to the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 are believed to be located there, Alpha News reported.
Allen has also been in the public spotlight for a separate legal matter. She is facing federal felony charges stemming from the Jan. 18 disruption at Cities Church in St. Paul, where she was among anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protesters who entered the church during services.
Allen, who leads Black Lives Matter Twin Cities, discussed the protest in a January interview with TMZ. She accused ICE of “terrorizing our women and our children” and described the shooting death of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good by an ICE officer as “the most graphic murder.”
Speaking about pastor David Easterwood and his reported connections to ICE, Allen said, “And then we have the head of this whole operation standing in a pulpit preaching to a congregation every Sunday morning. And that was really just not OK for us.”
Allen defended the church protest during the interview, saying, “I believe that’s what needed to be done to get the message across.” She added that her upbringing in Christianity shaped her view of the action: “My mother’s a pastor and so I grew up in Christianity, I grew up in the church. And one of the things I remember about Jesus Christ himself is that when things weren’t going right in the church, he went in and he flipped tables.”
The St. Paul Board of Education told Fox News Digital it was aware of the social media post and had no further comment.
Allen didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
