Powerful Names

In the late 1600s, the Mdewankanton Dakota moved from Mde Wakaŋ (Mille Lacs Lake) to along the Mnisota Wakpa, later called the Minnesota River. One planting village was located on the north side of the river in the area later called Shakopee. Around 1839 the village moved to the south side of the river. Traders and trappers moved into the area and soon learned to speak in several languages, including Dakota, French, and English. Missionaries were next, followed by farmers and merchants. The Germans and Irish also moved into the village. The village became a town and the town became a city. Before long, Shakopee had more than 40,000 people, and spoke 60 languages and dialects. Since the late 1600s this area was called different names: Tíŋta Otuŋwe, meaning prairie village, a reference to the unwooded land on the terrace of the river's south side, and the name of a summer planting village started in the late 1600s; Prairie des Français, or French Prairie, used by French Canadian and Métis voyageurs who traded goods and supplies to the Dakota Indians in exchange for furs in the late 1600s; Sixes or Little Sixes, named after Dakota leader Sakpe and used by U.S. military and Indian agencies in the 1820s; Prairieville, named by Reverend Samuel W. Pond in 1847 when he set up the mission and school at the invitation of Sakpe II; Holmes Landing, located where Thomas Holmes and William Quinn first arrived in the fall of 1851, where Thomas A. Holmes built his trading post, and a name later associated with what would become Shakapee City; Sha K’ Pay, Minnesota Territory, used on posted letters in 1853-1855; Shakapee City, Minnesota Territory, used on town site plats filed in the summer of 1855 and in an inscription dated December 27, 1855; and Shakopee, Minnesota, the name of the city founded in 1857.

Shakopee, Minnesota · United States