Yankton, South Dakota Yankton, South Dakota Yankton is a city in, and the county seat of, Yankton County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 14,454 at the 2010 census. Yankton is the principal city of the Yankton Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes the entirety of Yankton County, and which had an estimated population of 22,662 as of July 1, 2017. Yankton was the first capital of Dakota Territory. It is named for the Yankton tribe of Nakota (Sioux) Native Americans; Yankton is derived from the Nakota word "I-hank-ton-wan" ("the end village"). Yankton is located on the Missouri River just downstream of the
Spirit Lake Tribe treaty with the United States that established a reservation for Dakotas who had not been forcibly relocated to Crow Creek Reservation in what is now called South Dakota. The name "Devils Lake" is a calque of the Dakota phrase "mni wak’áŋ" (literally: spirit water), which is also reflected in the names of the Spirit Lake Tribe and the nearby town of Minnewaukan. The Dakota called the lake "mni wak’áŋ chante", which separately translate as "mni" (water), "wak’áŋ" (literally "pure source" but often translated as "spirit" or "sacred"), and "chante" (heart). European-American settlers misconstrued this name to mean "Bad Spirit Lake",