Dakota County is the third-most populous county in the U.S. state of Minnesota, located in the east central portion of the state. As of the 2020 census, the population was 439,882. The population of Dakota County was estimated to be 442,038 in 2021. The county seat is Hastings. Dakota County is named for the Dakota Sioux tribal bands who inhabited the area. The name is recorded as "Dahkotah" in the United States Census records until 1851. Dakota County is included in the Minneapolis–St. Paul–Bloomington, MN–WI Metropolitan Statistical Area, the sixteenth largest metropolitan area in the United States with about 3.64 million residents. The largest city in Dakota County is the city of Lakeville, the eleventh-largest city in Minnesota and sixth-largest Twin Cities suburb. The county is bordered by the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers on the north, and the state of Wisconsin on the east.
Mendota is a city in Dakota County, Minnesota, United States. The name is derived from the Dakota language, meaning "mouth or junction of one river with another. The population was 198 at the 2010 census.
Faribault is a city in, and the county seat of, Rice County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 23,352 at the 2010 census. Faribault is approximately 50 miles (80 km) south of Minneapolis–Saint Paul.
Fort Snelling is a former military fortification and National Historic Landmark in the U.S. state of Minnesota on the bluffs overlooking the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers. The military site was initially named Fort Saint Anthony, but it was renamed Fort Snelling once its construction was completed in 1825.
Henry Hastings Sibley was a fur trader with the American Fur Company, the first U.S. Congressional representative for Minnesota Territory, the first governor of the state of Minnesota, and a U.S. military leader in the Dakota War of 1862 and a subsequent expedition into Dakota Territory in 1863.
Little Crow III was a Mdewakanton Dakota chief who led a faction of the Dakota in a five-week war against the United States in 1862.
The Lower Sioux Agency, or Redwood Agency, was the federal administrative center for the Lower Sioux Indian Reservation in what became Redwood County, Minnesota, United States. It was the site of the Battle of Lower Sioux Agency on August 18, 1862, the first organized battle of the Dakota War of 1862.
Jean-Baptiste Faribault was a trader with the Indians and early settler in Minnesota.
The Mdewakanton or Mdewakantonwan are one of the sub-tribes of the Isanti (Santee) Dakota (Sioux). Their historic home is Mille Lacs Lake in central Minnesota. Together with the Wahpekute, they form the so-called Upper Council of the Dakota or Santee Sioux. Today their descendants are members of federally recognized tribes in Minnesota, South Dakota and Nebraska of the United States, and First Nations in Manitoba, Canada.
Fort Snelling State Park is a state park of the U.S. state of Minnesota, at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers. For many centuries, the area of the modern park has been of importance to the Mdewakanton Dakota people who consider it the center of the earth. The state park, which opened in 1962, is named for the historic Fort Snelling, which dates from 1820. The fort structure is maintained and operated by the Minnesota Historical Society. The bulk of the state park preserves the bottomland forest, rivers, and backwater lakes below the river bluffs. Both the state and historic fort structure are part of the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, a National Park Service site.
The Treaty of Traverse des Sioux was signed on July 23, 1851, at Traverse des Sioux in Minnesota Territory between the United States government and the Upper Dakota Sioux bands. In this land cession treaty, the Sisseton and Wahpeton Dakota bands sold 21 million acres of land in present-day Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota to the U.S. for $1,665,000.
Pike Island is an island at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers in the southwestern-most part of Saint Paul in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The island is managed as part of Fort Snelling State Park and is within the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area. For centuries, Dakota people have considered the area of the island to be a sacred place where they moved with the seasons to find food and resources. The island is named after Zebulon Pike, who negotiated the United States government purchase of the area from Mdewakanton Sioux Indians in 1805.
Gabriel Renville, also known as Ti'wakan, was Chief of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate Sioux Tribe from 1866 until his death in 1892. He opposed conflict with the United States during the Dakota War of 1862 and was a driving force within the Dakota Peace Party. Gabrielle Renville's influence and political leadership were critical to the eventual creation of the Lake Traverse Indian Reservation, which lies mainly in present-day South Dakota.
The Alexander Faribault House is a historic house museum in Faribault, Minnesota, United States. Built in 1853, it was the first wood-frame house constructed in Rice County, Minnesota. It was built by fur trader Alexander Faribault in the Greek Revival style. Besides serving as a house, it also served as a civic center, polling place, and a church. The local address of the house is 12 First Avenue, Faribault, MN. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Dakota County, Minnesota. It is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Dakota County, Minnesota, United States. Dakota County is located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Minnesota, bounded on the northeast side by the Upper Mississippi River and on the northwest by the Minnesota River. The locations of National Register properties and districts for which the latitude and longitude coordinates are included below, may be seen in an online map.
Inyan Ceyaka Otonwe, also called Little Rapids or simply Inyan Ceyaka, was a summer planting village of the Wahpeton Dakota on the Minnesota River in what is now Louisville Township, Minnesota, United States. Located near present-day city of Jordan, the village was occupied by the Wahpeton during the early nineteenth century, and likely before. Burial mounds indicate that possible ancestors of the Dakota lived at the site as early as 100 CE. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999 for having local significance in the theme of archaeology. The unmarked site is preserved within the Carver Rapids unit of the Minnesota Valley State Recreation Area.
Hypolite Dupuis was known as a "veritable old settler" in the Minnesota River Valley when it was largely inhabited by Native Americans. He was a French Canadian fur trader who eventually settled in Mendota, Minnesota, opened the first general store there, and served as the first treasurer of Dakota County.
Alexander "Alex" Faribault was an American trading post operator and territorial legislator who helped to found Faribault, Minnesota and was its first postmaster.
Oheyawahi-Pilot Knob is a scenic overlook, and a Native American gathering place and burial ground in Mendota Heights, Minnesota, United States. The overlook provides views of the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers, Fort Snelling, and the Minneapolis and St. Paul skylines. It was the site of the 1851 Treaty of Mendota between the United States federal government and the Dakota people of Minnesota, who consider the site sacred. In 2017, Oheyawahi-Pilot Knob was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Azayamankawin, also known as Hazaiyankawin, Betsey St. Clair, Old Bets, or Old Betz, was one of the most photographed Native American women of the 19th century. She was a Mdewakanton Dakota woman well known in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where she once ran a canoe ferry service. Old Bets was said to have helped many women and children taken captive during the Dakota War of 1862.
