Location
Toqua is in Big Stone County TOQUA Township (formerly spelled Tokua), first settled in 1877 and organized March 16, 1880, received its name from the two Tokua Lakes in Graceville and the similar pair of lakes in this township, which latter were called by the Dakota, as translated, the Tokua Brothers Lakes. This aboriginal name is spelled Ta Kara on Joseph N. Nicollet's map, 1843, Ta being the Dakota word for the moose, while Kara doubtless refers to the Kahra band of the Dakota.Nicollet also used the word Kara as the final part of other names, Plan Kara and Manstitsa Kara, given on his map to two points or hillocks of the valley bluff east of the northern end of Lake Traverse. Stephen R. Riggs, however, in his Dakota dictionary published in 1852, rejected all use of the letter r in that language, so that the name Kahra or Kara may not be identifiable in that work. Tokua (or Toqua) was the white men's endeavor to spell the Dakota name for these pairs of lakes, which Nicollet spelled as Ta Kara. From: Upham, Warren. Minnesota Place Names: A Geographical Encyclopedia. St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press, First edition 1920. Third Edition 2001. Print.
