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The county seat is Hastings. Dakota County is named after the Dakota Sioux tribal bands who settled in the area. The name is recorded as "Dahkotah" in the United States Census records until 1851.

In the 1600s, Mdewakanton Dakota fled their ancestral home of Mille Lacs Lake in northern Minnesota in response to westward expansion of the Ojibway nation. According to Dakota tradition, their ancestors pushed out the Iowa who were found settled at the mouth of the Minnesota River. Later in 1680, the Mdewakanton Dakota were contacted by French explorer Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut and the Mendota (mdo-TE) band of the Mdewakanton south of the Minnesota River were contacted later by Joseph Nicollet in the 18th century. While Taoyateduta (a.k.a. Little Crow) led the Mendota in northern Dakota County, upstream to the southwest, Chief Black Dog established his village of 600 people around 1750 at the isthmus between Black Dog Lake (from which is named after him) and the Minnesota River, near the present site of the Black Dog Power Plant.
 
Following the published expeditions of explorers, in 1805, Zebulon Pike negotiated for military territory with the Mendota band which included land in Dakota County at the Mississippi River confluences with the Minnesota and St. Croix Rivers. In 1819, on what is now Picnic Island on the south bank of the Minnesota River, Colonel Henry Leavenworth built a stockade fort called "St. Peter's Cantonment" or "New Hope," where materials were assembled for the construction of Fort Snelling to be built on the bluff on the north bank. Permanent settlement on the island was impossible due to annual flooding. Alexis Bailey built some log buildings nearby to trade in furs in 1826. Henry Hastings Sibley later built the first stone house in Minnesota in 1836, overlooking Fort Snelling. Sibley was a partner in the American Fur Company, and considerable fur trade occurred at Mendota due to the accessibility of the confluence.

On-going United States expansion into the then "Northwest Territory" led to government purchase of land from the Dakota people (the Mdewakanton, Wahpekute, Wahpeton, and Sisseton bands) via the Treaty of St. Peters and the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux in 1851 and the Treaty of Mendota. After the establishment of the Minnesota Territory in 1849, Dakotah County (later Dakota County) spanned from the Mississippi River to the Missouri River. By the time Minnesota achieved statehood in 1858, power and influence had shifted from Mendota, across the rivers to Saint Paul

On Line Data

Cities Apple Valley Burnsville Coates Eagan Farmington Hampton Hastings Inver Grove Heights Lakeville Lilydale Mendota Mendota Heights Miesville New Trier Northfield Randolph Rosemount South St. Paul Sunfish Lake Vermillion West St. Paul Unincorporated communities Castle Rock Etter Eureka Center Waterford Ghost towns Lewiston Nininger

Townships Castle Rock Township Douglas Township Empire Township Eureka Township Greenvale Township Hampton Township Marshan Township Nininger Township Randolph Township Ravenna Township Sciota Township Vermillion Township Waterford Township

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