Dakota
Dakota Anishinabe
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The term "Dakota" translates as "friends" or "allies". The
Anishinabe (Ojibwe) referred to the Dakota as "enemy" in the Anishinabe
language. French traders used the last syllable of this term and
labeled the Dakota as "Sioux." Today, they are known as both Dakota and
Sioux.
The Dakota Nation includes the native peoples who once lived in the northern forests and along the upper Mississippi River in northern Minnesota. In time, the Dakota Nation divided into three groups (Dakota, Nakota, and Lakota), each moving in different directions but still maintaining close ties to one another.
The Eastern Dakota live closest to the Mississippi River. The Dakota consist of four main bands, which make up four of the seven council fires of the Dakota nation:
Bdewakanton (Dwellers at Mystic Lake) - Also known as Mdewakanton.
Reservations: Lower Sioux, Prairie Island, Shakopee in Minnesota.
Wahpekute (Shooters of the Leaves) -
Reservations: Santee (Nebraska), Fort Peck (Montana), Spirit Lake (North Dakota)
Sisutunwan (Dwellers by the Fish Campground) -
Reservations: Lake Traverse (South/North
Dakota) and Spirit Lake
Wahpetonwan (Dwellers Among the Leaves) -
Reservations: Lake Traverse, Flandreau, Spirit
Lake
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The content of these pages was carefully researched, but the
authors are not experts on Dakota culture.
Please send questions, comments, and corrections to emuseum@mnsu.edu and include the
web address of this page.
If you are
Dakota, your feedback is much appreciated.
Bibliography
Densmore, Frances
1997 Dakota and Ojibwe People in Minnesota.
St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society.
Minnesota Historical Society
1970 The Dakota or Sioux.
Gopher Historian Leaflet Series Number 5. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical
Society.
Where we are today. Former
link http://drivinghawk.com/today.htm (2009) 
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