Dakota (given name) Dakota (given name) Dakota is a unisex given name derived from the name of an indigenous Native American tribe: Dakota people or from the name of two states in the United States: North Dakota and South Dakota which are also derived from the Dakota people local to that area. The name is translated to mean "friend", "friendly" or "allies" in the Yankton-Yanktonai and Santee dialects of the Lakota Sioux language. The name has been in occasional use for both sexes in the United States since at least the 1940s. The name's popularity grew in the 1990s in the US. It
War Eagle (Dakota Leader) War Eagle (Dakota Leader) War Eagle (Dakota: Waŋbdí Okíčhize) was born in Minnesota or Wisconsin around 1785. He had left his own tribe, the Santee, to avoid bloodshed in a fight as to who would be chief. As a young man, War Eagle spent considerable time working among the white Americans. During the War of 1812, he carried messages for the United States government, and worked among the native peoples to promote the cause of the United States against the British. He worked as a riverboat guide on the upper Mississippi and also served as a messenger for the American