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Minnesota was more than 80 years away from statehood when the United States declared independence in 1776, and Indigenous history reaches back far before either existed. Dakota tribal nations long lived with the land before western settlement and gave names to rivers, lakes and sacred sites, reflecting cultural ties that are still woven into Minnesota’s landscape today.

On a warm, sunny day, Spirit Lake Nation citizen Neil Cantemaza McKay speaks to an intergenerational group of learners at a Dakota language camp in Bloomington.

The camp is held at the historic Pond Dakota Mission Park, located along the bluffs of the Minnesota River, a place of cultural significance for many Dakota people.

Down the Minnesota River's winding stream is a confluence where it joins the Mississippi River in Mendota. McKay, a Dakota culture and language instructor at the University of Minnesota, says this confluence is known as Bdóte. He says it’s also where the Dakota people emerged — a creation story.

“We are the only people in the world that can say that we come from this place. Nobody else can say that. So, our roots run the deepest with this land, more than anybody,” McKay said.

Cameron Stennes is a citizen of the Upper Sioux Community. The tribal nation is located upstream on the Minnesota River in eastern Yellow Medicine County. This is his second year teaching at the camp.

Stennes says understanding the Dakota language can help deepen one's understanding of a place.

“Our place names are typically very much, like, descriptive of what that place is, what happens there, what's significant about that place,” said Stennes.

Minnesota's name comes from the Dakota language. Mni means water. Sota can be interpreted as clear, cloudy or sky-tinted.   

As the Declaration of Independence was being signed over a thousand miles away, the river was known as Mni Sota Wakpa to the Dakota people. It would also be called St. Peter’s River by English and French explorers, but Congress affirmed the Dakota name in 1852. The Minnesota River would become the state’s namesake a few years later.

McKay says the river and connecting waterways have always been essential to the Dakota way of life.

“When we think about traveling, we took to the water. We could go far. We know our waterways, our water systems,” he said.

Samantha Majhor is an assistant professor in the American Indian Studies department at the University of Minnesota. She is a descendant of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes in Montana.

Majhor also contributes to the Oceti Sakowin Story Map Project, which aims to remap Dakota placenames in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

“These are also places where we kept home, we built mounds, where we did agriculture, and just important ecological spaces,” Majhor said.

She adds that the confluence where the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers meet has always been a draw for humans.

“As many Minnesotans know, the centrality of the waters and the waterways — it continues to dictate our lives. Even as we live them now in the 21st century in new ways,” she said.

As western settlement expanded, roads and cities were built around waterways.

Across the Twin Cities metro area, people may recognize places like Lake Minnetonka, Minnehaha Falls or Bde Maka Ska. Bde Maka Ska was named Lake Calhoun in the 1800s.

was reclaimed in 2018 to reflect its original and long-standing name

The change did face some opposition. Majhor says one argument was that the name may be difficult to pronounce.   

“It's the basic idea that we as human beings struggle with change. I mean, some folks are like, ‘I'm used to calling it this, I don't want to struggle to learn how to pronounce this, even though I might know these other Dakota words and say them every day,’” she said.

Back at the bluffs overlooking the Minnesota River, Neil Cantemaza McKay reflects on what the area would have looked like 250 years ago. He describes it as “paradise.”

“In early documentation, you know, you get things like the land looks untouched and pristine, yet millions of people lived here,” he said.

Throughout the camp, McKay says lessons of language and names are taught so they can continue to live on for years to come.

Chandra Colvin covers Native American communities in Minnesota for MPR News via 

, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities.

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As the Declaration of Independence was being signed, the Minnesota River was known as Mni Sota Wakpa to the Dakota people. Congress affirmed the Dakota name in 1852. The Minnesota River would become the state’s namesake a few years later.

Beyond 250 years: Minnesota River flows through time and history

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