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
White Bird (Native American leader) White Bird (Native American leader) White Bird ("Peo-peo-hix-hiix", "piyóopiyo x̣ayx̣áyx̣" or more correctly "Peopeo Kiskiok Hihih" - "White Goose"), also referred to as White Pelican (died 1892), was leader, war chief and "tooat" (Shaman or Prophet) of the "Lamátta" or "Lamtáama" band of the Nez Perce tribe with the Lamata village along the Salmon River. His band and the village took its name from "Lahmatta" ("area with little snow"), by which White Bird Canyon was known to the Nez Perce. Chief White Bird, like many of his people, was a Dreamer, a follower of the teachings of Smohalla, the Wanapam