Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnehaha, Minnetonka, Minnewaska, Minneota. Those are just some of the place names in "the Land of 10,000 Lakes" featuring "minne" as the first five letters. 

The words all have one thing in common: the Dakota word "mni," according to C̣aƞtemaza Neil McKay, an expert in the Dakhóta language at the University of Minnesota.

"So 'mni' is 'water.' 'Sota' means 'clear,' like when you look at water and you can see through it, it's clear," C̣aƞtemaza said. "Dr. Charles Alexander Eastman ... a Dakota scholar in the 1800s, he translated Minnesota as 'the land where the waters reflects,' reflect the skies or the heavens, because this land is very beautiful."

C̣aƞtemaza says Minneapolis means "water city." As for Minnetonka's origins?

"'Tanka' does mean 'big,' but what I was told was the original name of the lake is 'the big talking lake,'" he said.  

There is a reason that so many words lead back to water, according to C̣aƞtemaza. 

"In Dakota, water is the blood of the Creator, and that's why we come from water when we're born, when we are developing," he said.

A few other Dakhóta translations from C̣aƞtemaza: Minnehaha means "waterfall," and Minnewashta means "sacred water."

You can find more information about speaking Dakota here, including the free language dictionary app called Dakhod Iapi Wichoie Wowapi.

The Dakhóta iápi Okhódakičhiye will also put on a language day camp at the Belwin Conservancy in Afton on Jan. 31, 2026.