Minnetonka

Minnetonka, the Dakota name for “big water,” lies amid the lakes and oak savanna west of the upper Mississippi. Its many bays and islands formed a rich hunting and fishing country for the Dakota. People gathered wild rice and made maple sugar around the lake, while trails through the surrounding country connected communities and places of exchange. Dakota and Ojibwe traders travelled through the area on a route between Mille Lacs and Shakopee.

The later city of Minneapolis lies here.