Minnesota Historical Society
Minnesota Historical Society
BRUCE VENTO NATURE SANCTUARY
Little Crow’s Village on the Mississippi by Seth Eastman
About a dozen permanent bark houses provided summer shelter at Kaposia.
Outside the entrances, large platforms were constructed for food drying, storage
By Mark Apfelbacher
and sleeping on hot summer nights.
Dakota life along Wakpa Tanka
Dakota people lived along the Mississippi
River — known as Wakpa Tanka — for
hundreds of years. From the mid-1700s to
the mid-1800s, the seasonal village of
Kaposia existed in two locations downstream
from here, near Pigs Eye Lake.
Mdewakanton Dakota resided in Kaposia
mainly during the warmer months of the year.
Some people made maple sugar, and others
hunted game such as rabbits, fowl, deer and
buffalo. Seeds, roots, plants and other foods,
including wild rice, were gathered in season
and dried for preservation. After the first hard
frost the band would separate and spend the
winter in sheltered creek valleys.
Kaposia residents would have visited this land
for its sacred cave, Wakan Tipi, and may have
hunted in the marshlands that once existed here.
DAKOTA SITES ALONG THE MISSISSIPPI
AND MINNESOTA RIVERS.
Courtesy of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux
(Dakota) community. For more information visit
www.shakopeedakota.org
Taoyateduta, also known as
Little Crow, led the Kaposia
band during a time of
increasing contact with
European immigrants and
enormous changes for the
Dakota people.
TATANKA OYATE
MAKOCE
Land of the
Buffalo People
There are Dakota
names for many of
the places in this
area.
Imnizaska “white
cliffs” — the name
given to the rock
face we now call
Dayton’s Bluff or
Mounds Bluff.
Wakan Tipi “spirit
house” — the sacred
cave that is now part
of the Bruce Vento
Nature Sanctuary,
also known as
Carver’s Cave.
Wakpa Tanka “big
river” — the name
for the Mississippi
River.