A bison standing in grasslands in Badlands National Park, South Dakota
3 November 2021
The states of North Dakota and South Dakota take their names from the name of an Indigenous people who live in the region. Dakhóta is the Santee name for themselves. Literally, Dakhóta means friend, a nouning of a verb meaning to be friendly, which in current, figurative use means to be Dakota, to be Sioux. Santee is part of the Siouan language group, which is spoken by Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains of what is now the United States and Canada. The linguistic nomenclature of the group can be confusing, so the relationships between the dialects are best expressed by nested bullet points.
Central Siouan
Dakotan
Lakota (Lakhóta)
Western Dakota (Dakhóta)
Yankton
Yanktonai
Eastern Dakota (Dakhóta)
Santee
Sisseton
Assiniboine (Nakhóta)
Stoney (Nakhóta)
The Assiniboine and Stoney now live primarily in Western Canada, but historically their territory extended into what is now North Dakota. The names Dakhóta, Lakhóta, and Nakhóta are cognates, with similar meanings and usages in their respective languages.
The name first appears in English in the journals of the Lewis and Clark expedition (1804–06), whose purpose was to map the northern portion of the Louisiana Purchase, which the United States had just acquired from France. Clark’s journal entry for 31 August 1804 reads in part:
This Great Nation who the French has given the Nickname of Suouex, Call themselves Dar co tar.
Subsequently, as white settler-colonists moved into Siouan territory, they applied the name Dakota to a variety of places, towns, and counties, many of which are still in use. Dakota County, Minnesota, for instance, is a suburb of Minneapolis-St. Paul.
Prior to 1858, what are now the portions of the states of North and South Dakota east of the Missouri River were part of the Minnesota Territory, and the western portions were unorganized territory. But when the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory was granted statehood that year, the western portion was organized into the Dakota Territory, which originally also included parts of what is now Montana, Wyoming, and Nebraska. The Dakota Territory was formally organized in 1861, but the name goes back to at least 1857 when organization efforts started. From the St. Paul Daily Pioneer and Democrat of 10 November 1857:
Mass Meeting in Dakota Territory.
Pursuant to previous notice, a meeting of the settlers of the Big Sioux county was held at the House of David McBride, Esq., in Sioux Falls City, on Saturday, the 24th of October, 1857, to take into consideration the proper course to be pursued by the inhabitants of the former Territory of Minnesota, residing west of the line of the State of Minnesota, who in consequence of the State organization, are left without all civil government whatever.
[...]
On motion of Jas. W. Evans Esq., a committee, consisting of nine persons, was appointed to report to the meeting a plan of operations to be pursued by the people of Dakota Territory, to secure an early organization of the Territorial Government of said Territory.
North and South Dakota were admitted into the Union in 1889 as the thirty-ninth and fortieth states. The grant of statehood ignored the fact that by treaty, much of what was the new state of South Dakota belonged, by treaty, to the Dakota people. The settler-colonists not only stole the land, they stole the name as well.
Sources:
Bright, William. Native American Placenames of the United States. Norman: U of Oklahoma Press, 2004.
Clark, William. Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804–1806 (31 August 1804), vol. 1 of 6. Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed. New York, Dodd, Mead, 1904, 132. Hathitrust Digital Archive.
Everett-Heath, John. Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Place Names, sixth ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2020. Oxfordreference.com.
“Mass Meeting in Dakota Territory.” Daily Pioneer and Democrat (St. Paul, Minnesota), 10 November 1857, 2. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.
Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, March 2019, modified March 2021, s.v. Dakota, n. and adj.
Image credit: Unknown photographer, 2009. US National Park Service photo. Public domain image.