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 American mascot controversy treatment, and social positions. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights call for an end to the use of Native American mascots was only for non-native schools. In cases where universities were founded to educate Native Americans, such mascots may not be examples of cultural appropriation or stereotyping. Examples include the Fighting Indians of the Haskell Indian Nations University and the University of North Carolina at Pembroke (UNCP), which continues to have a substantial number of native students, and close ties to the Lumbee tribe. The UNCP nickname is the Braves, but the mascot is a red-tailed hawk. Pembroke Middle School,