THE DAKOTA TRIBES
DESIGNATION AND MODE OF CAMPING
The Dakota call themselves Otceti cakowin (Oćeti śakowiɳ[1]), The Seven Fireplaces or Council-fires. This designation refers to their original gentes, the Mdewakantonwan (Mdewakaɳ-toɳwaɳ), Waqpekute (Waḣpe-kute), Waqpe-tonwan (Waḣpetoɳwaɳ), Sisitonwan (Sisitoɳwaɳ), Ihañk-tonwan (Ihaɳktoɳwaɳ), Ihañk-tonwanna (Ihaɳktoɳwaɳna), and Titonwan (Titoɳwaɳ). They camped in two sets of concentric circles, one of four circles, consisting probably of the Mdewakantonwan, Waqpe-kute, Waqpe-tonwan and Sisitonwan; and the other of three circles, including the Ihañktonwan, Ihañktonwanna, and Titonwan, as shown by the dialectal resemblances and variations as well as by the relative positions of their former habitats.
THE MDEWAKANTONWAN
The Mdewakantonwan were so called from their former habitat, Mdewakan, or Mysterious lake, commonly called Spirit lake, one of the Mille Lacs in Minnesota. The whole name means Mysterious Lake village, and the term was used by De l'Isle as early as 1703. The Mdewakantonwan were the original Santee, but the white people, following the usage of the Ihañktonwan, Ihañktonwanna, and Titonwan, now extend that name to the Waqpekute, Waqpetonwan, and Sisitonwan. The gentes of the Mdewakantonwan are as follows:[2]
1. Kiyuksa, Breakers (of the law or custom); so called because members of this gens disregarded the marriage law by taking wives within the gens.
2. Qe-mini-tcan (Ḣe-mini-ćaɳ) or Qemnitca (Ḣemnića), literally, "Mountain-water-wood;" so called from a hill covered with timber that appears to rise out of the water. This was the gens of Red Wing, whose village was a short distance from Lake Pepin, Minnesota.
3. Kap'oja (Kap̣oźa), Not encumbered-with-much-baggage; "Light Infantry." "Kaposia, or Little Crow's village," in Minnesota, in 1852.