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
Impact of Native American gaming Native American gaming has created over 300,000 jobs in the United States. Tribes in only 30 states are eligible to operate gaming enterprises because 16 states have no federally recognized tribes, and five states (Massachusetts, Texas, Missouri, Rhode Island, and Utah) prohibit Native American gaming. 224 of the 550 tribes in 28 states operate the 350 Native American gaming enterprises nationwide, and 68% of Native Americans belong to a tribe with gaming operations. According to the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, these enterprises earned $19.4 billion in 2005. As compared to the $4.5 billion earned by Native American