File:/tour_excerptC/MankatoName
You say 'Mankato,and I say 'Mahkato'
“How the city got its name
has much more fiction and legend than
actual facts”
By
Tim Krohn
Free Press Staff Writer
MANKATO (MAHKAHTA, MAHKATO) -
So just how, exactly, did Mankato get its name?
Was it a bad translation of
Dakota Indian language? A misspelling from an early map? Or was it named for a
nymph from a German legend? And what about Mankato, Kansas - what's the deal
with their name?
A couple of weeks ago, this
newspaper ran a story about how various Minnesota towns got their names and
recounted the often-told story of Mankato coming about from a misspelling. That
story prompted readers to question that account and resurrect other theories
about the name's origin.
One of the most common theories is that the name dates back to the
Dakota Indian word "Mahkahta" or "Mahkato" which means,
"blue earth."
The story goes that the
"h" in Mahkato was mistakenly read as an "n," leading to
the name Mankato.
But one reader sent a copy
of an old newspaper article that gave a different theory.
German nymph
A story in the December 1895
Free Press said that in the late 1850s a meeting was called to select a name
for the new settlement. Apparently the founding fathers argued for hours with
no agreement.
Then, reportedly, D.A.
Robertson suggested they read comments written by early French explorer Joseph
Nicollet, who wrote a journal as he explored southern Minnesota.
Nicollet described the
country at the big bend in the river as reminiscent "of an old German
legend, where the scene is laid at a place called Undine because of its lakes
and rivers and beautiful waterfalls. The setting of the legend was presided
over by a nymph called "Mankato."
Thus, the newspaper story
said, the city got its name.
But that version of events
is suspect.
Historian Thos. Hughes had
heard the tale of Mankato getting its name from the legend Undine. But in his
book 1890s, "History of the Welsh in Minnesota," Hughes said the
story was wrong. "Some maintain that the name came from that of the
water-spirit in the German Legend of Undine. But the name Mankato does not
occur in Undine."
Just for fun, we found the
Legend of Undine on the Internet - www.undine.com/undinestory.html. We couldn't
find a mention of Mankato either. (Although the legend is a good read - a racy
story with dialogue like: "Give me a kiss you love sick shepherd.")
So, the story of Mankato
coming from a romantic German nymph legend, appears just that, a legend. All of
which goes to prove you shouldn't believe everything you read in the newspaper.
Mankato, Kansas
Our Mankato, is not the only
one in the country. There is a Mankato, Kansas, as well.
Perhaps researching the
origin of that city's name could help unravel the mystery behind our name.
The University of Kansas Web
site on the history of Kansas gives this account of how the Kansas community
got its name. The town had been called Jewell Center, but that name was
confused with a nearby Jewell City, so the city founders decided to change the
name in the early 1870s.
"It was christened, by
the name it now bears - Mankato. This was given to it by H.R. Hill, who
attended school at Mankato, Blue Earth Co., Minn." Well, so much for that.
And another possibility
The Minnesota State
University Web site on the history of Minnesota gives this account: The city's
founders "chose the name "Mahkato," the Indian name for the
Minnesota River. However, when the report came out, the "h" looked
like an "n" and so the town officially became Mankato."
Then there's Cokato
Cokato, Minn., in Wright
County, shares at least part of Mankato's name, so we next went looking there.
According to an account on
the Minnesota Historical Society Web site, Cokato is the translation of the Dakota
language, meaning "at the middle" - Wright County being, sort of, in
the middle of the state.
No help, there, either.
A Dakota's theory
For a final thought on the
matter, we called Clifford Canku, a Dakota Indian, language specialist and
professor at Sisseton Wahpeton Community College in South Dakota.
He confirms that Mahkato
means blue earth ("mahka" meaning earth and "to" meaning
blue).
As for the other variation -
Mahkahta - printed on some early maps, Canku guesses it was just a variation
made in translation. "It might be that whoever was writing it had their
own writing style. They probably did the best they could."
And Canku has a reasonable
theory on how the name became Mankato. "Different Indians had different
dialects. The Yankton Indians would have said it with an 'n' instead of an 'h.'
They [Mankato's founders] could have heard it from the Yankton Indians who
would have the `n' dialect," Canku said.
In the end, Canku said
residents here shouldn't worry too much whether the spelling is Mankato,
Mahkato or Mahkahta. "Really, they would all have similar interpretations,
meaning blue earth. It just depends what dialect you want to choose."