Oral traditions and archaeological evidence suggest early human habitation in the Anoka area, where inhabitants hunted game, gathered plants, and made pottery. Conflict began between the Dakota, who lived near Lake Mille Lacs, and the Anishinaabeg (Ojibwe), who were moving inland from the Great Lakes, and Anoka became a border area between the two Nations when the Dakota were driven further south. In 1680, Father Hennepin, a French explorer, was taken up the Rum River by the Ojibwe and wrote of his camp at the confluence of the Rum and Mississippi that food was scarce and the berries they had to eat “did more harm than good.” Anoka then became part of the Northwest Territory, while across the Mississippi River was Louisiana, purchased by the United States from France in 1803. In 1805, Zebulon Pike led an exploratory mission similar to the Lewis and Clark expedition, and his party headed into the newly purchased lands on the upper Mississippi and camped at the mouth of the Rum River. Treaties with Native Americans opened land between the St. Croix and Mississippi Rivers for settlement. The rich forests along the Rum River were one reason organizers of the State of Wisconsin wanted their western border to be the Rum, but Anoka instead became part of the Minnesota Territory in 1849. In 1853, a New York doctor, Neil Shaw, signed the name “Anoka” when he registered in a St. Anthony hotel. Similar words in both Dakota and Ojibwe mean “on both sides” and “river that works,” respectively. Local government began when the County of Anoka was established in 1857 and the town of Anoka became the county seat. After two failed votes in 1858 and 1869, Anoka was incorporated as a city in 1878.