List of Minnesota placenames of Native American origin

The following list includes settlements, geographic features, and political subdivisions of Minnesota whose names are derived from Native American languages or are popularly known by a Native-language name.

Placename linguistic origins

The primary Native languages in Minnesota are Dakota and Ojibwe. Some Dakota and Ojibwe placenames are based on Iowa language, a people that had significant presence in the Southern portion of the state until the 16th century.

Many Minnesota placenames are translations or mistranslations, mispronunciations, or Romanized transcriptions of Native placenames and descriptions. Dakota, Ojibwe, and Iowa people had no written language at the time these names were popularly adopted.

One of the most common mispronunciations is that of the Dakota-language consonant "b", which is a combination of "m" and "b" consonants in English. In English there is no equivalent. Placenames were often recorded verbally and textually by European colonizers with the English consonant "m" in place of the Dakota consonant "b". In modern Dakota language, "b" is typically the correct consonant for words such as Bdóte, whose depreciated form in the historical record is mdóte. Cities such as Mendota, Minnesota take their name from Bdóte with the European colonizer mispronunciation of the Dakota "b" consonant.

State name
  • Minnesota – from the Dakota name for their homeland Mnisóta Makhóčhe: Where the Water Reflects the Sky.

Native names by county

Native names by municipality

Bodies of water

Landforms
  • Bdóte – lit. 'Clearwater Confluence', the Northern tip of Pike Island and the surrounding area, known to the Dakota as the center of the universe and start of all life
  • Cayuga Range
  • Kaposia Landing – location of the former Kapoṡia (Little Crow's Village)[4]
  • Mesabi Range

See also

References

Citations
  1. https://www.mnopedia.org/person/tatanka-mani-walking-buffalo-red-wing-ca-1755-1829
  2. https://bdotememorymap.org/point/coldwater-springs/
  3. https://redhawksonline.com/2012/12/14/fact-check-does-minnehaha-really-mean-laughing-waters/
  4. https://www.nps.gov/miss/planyourvisit/kapoindi.htm

Sources
  • Bright, William (2004). Native American Placenames of the United States. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 080613576X.
  • Campbell, Lyle (1997). American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195094271
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