Detail of 1755 “Mitchell Map” of French and British dominions in North America showing the Minnesota River, labeled on the map as Ouadebamenissouté or R. St. PeterWhatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
11 May 2021
The name Minnesota originally applied to the Minnesota River and only later was used by white settlers as the name for the territory and later the state. The name is from the Dakota name for the river: mnísóta. While there is no doubt that this Dakota word is the origin, the literal meaning of that word is in question. The first element, mní, means water, but the second element, sóta, is translated as either clear or as cloudy. The distinction is one pronunciation, either an /s/ or a /ʃ/ (an < ṡ > or sh sound). The University of Minnesota’s Dakota Dictionary Online, which translates the word as “clear water,” says this about the word:
There are a variety of opinions about the Dakota word for Minnesota. Some Dakota speakers pronounce the word Mnisota, which can be translated as clear water, referring to the Minnesota River. Others say it Mniṡota, or cloudy water, describing the morning mist that rises over the lakes and valleys in Southern Minnesota during the warmer months.
White explorers and settlers originally dubbed the river the St. Peter River but started to revert to the indigenous name in the mid nineteenth century. The 1755 Mitchell map of French and British dominions in North America shows the river and labels it as Ouadebamenissouté or R. St. Peter. The present-day spelling of Minnesota appears in English writing by the mid nineteenth century. This article from the New-York Commercial Advertiser of 16 September 1841 describes a treaty between the United States and the Dakota nation that was rejected by the United States Senate, presumably because it was too generous in offering the possibility of citizenship to Dakota people. The language of the article, which is racist and condescending, represented the more liberal and “enlightened” views of nineteenth-century white people:
The treaty was concluded by Governor Doty with the Western bands of the Dakota nations, on the 31st of July, at a place called Oeyoowora, 120 miles West of the Falls of St. Anthony, for a district of country which is hereafter to compose an Indian territory, to be occupied by the Indians now in the Eastern and Northern states and territories. The purchase embraces the valley of the Minnesota river (St. Peters) and its tributaries; and there is not a better tract of land or a more healthy climate in the West. The country acquired is sufficiently large to accommodate fifty thousand settlers, with farms of one hundred acres each. Besides advantages are secured to them which never have been granted heretofore. Among others is the fulfillment of the promise that the Indian, when civilized, may hold the title to real estate, and become a citizen of the United States. Unless these privileges are granted to the Indian, every effort which is made to civilize him but teaches him that he is of a degenerate race, without civil or political privileges.
By 1846, there were efforts to create a territory of Minnesota, and the name was transferred from the river to the surrounding territory. Here is an announcement of the introduction of a bill to create the territory that was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on 23 December 1846:
Among other bills presented were the following:
By Mr. Martin of Wisconsin, to establish the territorial government of Minnesota.
The Minnesota Territory would finally be organized in 1849, and it was admitted to the union on 11 May 1858.
Sources:
Bright, William. Native American Placenames of the United States. Norman: U of Oklahoma Press, 2004, s.v. Minnesota.
Dakota Dictionary Online. University of Minnesota, Department of American Indian Studies, 2010, s.v. Mnisota.
Everett-Heath, John. Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Place Names, sixth ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2020, s.v. Minnesota. Oxfordreference.com.
“House of Representatives.” American Republican and Baltimore Daily Clipper, 24 December 1846, 4. Library of Congress. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers.
“The Rejected Treaty.” New-York Commercial Advertiser, 16 September 1841, 2. Readex: Historical American Newspapers.
Image credit: Mitchell, John, 1755. Library of Congress. Public domain image.