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
Native Americans in the American Civil War 28,693 Native Americans served in the Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War, participating in battles such as Pea Ridge, Second Manassas, Antietam, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and in Federal assaults on Petersburg. Many Native American tribes fought for either side in the war including: the Delaware, Creek, Cherokee, Seminole, Kickapoo, Osage, Shawnee, Choctaw, Lumbee, Chickasaw, Iroquois Confederacy, Powhatan, Pequot, Ojibwe (Chippewa), Huron, Odawa, Potawatomi, Catawba, and Pamunkey. Like other American communities, some tribes had members fighting on either side of the war. During November 1861, the Creek, Black Creek Indians, and White Creek Indians of their tribe were led