The Minnetonka area was home to the Dakota and Ojibwe Native American tribes before Euro-Americans arrived in the 1800s. They believed Lake Minnetonka ("mni" meaning water, and "tanka" meaning big, anglicized to Minnetonka) and the land around it to be sacred. The first recorded exploration of the area by Euro-Americans was in 1822, when a group from newly constructed Fort Snelling made its way up Minnehaha Creek (then known as Brown's Creek or Falls Creek) to the lake. In 1851, the Dakota sold the area including Minnetonka to the United States with the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux. The first census, the Territorial Census of 1857, lists 41 households. Twenty-nine of the heads of households are listed as farmers. The occupations of the remaining twelve are associated with the operations of Minnetonka Mill and a nearby hotel.