dakota

noun

1. a former territory in the United States: divided into the states of North Dakota and South Dakota in 1889.
2. North Dakota or South Dakota.
3. the Dakotas, North Dakota and South Dakota.
4. Also called Sioux. a member of the largest tribe of the Siouan stock of North American Indians, who originally occupied Minnesota and Wisconsin and later migrated westward to the Great Plains.
5. Santee(defs 3, 4).
6. a Siouan language spoken by the Dakota and Assiniboin Indians.

noun

1. a former territory of the US: divided into the states of North Dakota and South Dakota in 1889

1809, name of a group of native peoples from the Plains states speaking a Siouan language, from Dakota dakhota “friendly” (the name often is translated as “allies”). Recorded by Lewis and Clark (1804) as Dar co tar; in western dialects of the Teton subgroup, Lakota, Lakhota; in Assiniboine dialect, Nakota, Nakhota.