Location
Minnesota The Dakota name Minnesota (Hear it pronounced in Dakota) means sky-tinted water (Minne, water, and sota, somewhat clouded), as Rev. Edward D. Neill translated it on the authority of Rev. Gideon H. Pond. The river at its stages of flood becomes whitishly turbid. An illustration of the meaning of the words was told to the present writer by Mrs. Moses N. Adams, the widow of the well-known missionary of the Dakotas. She stated that at various times the Dakota women explained it to her by dropping a little milk into water and calling the whitishly clouded water""Minne sotaIn the years 1846-48, Hon. Henry H. Sibley and Hon. Morgan L. Martin, the delegate in Congress from Wisconsin, proposed this name for the new territory, which thus followed the example of Wisconsin in adopting the title of a large stream within its borders. During the next few years, it displaced the name St. Peter as applied in common usage by the white people to the river, whose euphonious Dakota title will continue to be borne by the river and the state.Jonathan Carver, who wintered with the Dakota on the Minnesota River. In 1766-67, was the earliest author to record its Dakota name. He spelled it Menesotor in his Travels through the Interior Parts of North America and Menesoter on the accompanying map. It was spelled Menesota by Long and William H. Keating; MenisothT by Giacomo C. Beltrami; Minisotah by Nicollet; Minnay sotor by George W. Featherstonhaugh; Minesota by Hon. M. L. Martin and Hon. Stephen A. Douglas in bills introduced by them respectively in the House and Senate for organization of the territory; and Minnesota by Hon. H. H. Sibley at the Stillwater convention. From: Upham, Warren. Minnesota Place Names: A Geographical Encyclopedia. St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press, First edition 1920. Third Edition 2001. Print.
