"Mine Soto" in Dakota means "whitish water" and according to Mary Eastman (1849) this was a reference to the white clay in the Minnesota River from which the state took its name. Clues to answer the riddle of why the Dakota might have noticed and then referenced the white clay in the water of the Minnesota River when naming one of the most important rivers of the Upper Midwest may exist in the ethnohistoric records of nearby tribes in Wisconsin. "The Winnebagoes believed that their horned water spirits dwelled in dens carved out of shining white clay.. . . The Potawatomis believed that when drowned persons were found with white clay in their mouth, nostrils, and eyes that it was a sure sign that the horned water panthers had drowned them" (Hall 1997:19).According to Robert L. Hall's recent book, An Archaeology of the Soul, North American Indian Belief and Ritual:
"White clay was used at one time in mourning ritual for a large block of tribes in the central and northern Plains, among them the Mandan, Atsina, Blackfoot, Eastern Dakota, Western Dakota, Assiniboine, Omaha, Ponca, Kansa, and the Crow - all of these being speakers of Siouan languages except the Atsina and Blackfoot. William McLeod has said that in the Plains "the use of white [paint in mourning] appears to belong to a level of culture earlier than the use of black, and to be receding before the use of black" (Hall 1997:46).
Hall pointed out the great antiquity of this practice in the Upper Midwest when he wrote: "White marly clay was puddled over Hopewell burials in mounds east of Newville, Wisconsin, which is located at the outlet of Lake Koshkonong, and liquid white clay was applied to the faces of two burials in another middle Woodland mound excavated near the outlet of Lake Monona, south of Madison, Wisconsin" (Hall 1997:19).
Clay-based face paint was used daily by Dakota women and more fair skinned children to protect the face and body from sun and wind (Standing Bear 1978). Luther Standing Bear described his Lakota grandmother, who was anticipating the birth of a child, baking red earth clay and pounding it into a fine powder to mix with buffalo fat. This rendered it into a creamy paste which "served as a cleanser and also a protector to the tender skin of the child. Then grandmother had gathered the driest of buffalo chips and ground them between stones to a powder as fine and soft as talcum. This powder was a purifier, and soothing to an irritated skin" (Standing Bear 1978:118). The Omaha put clay on the head and face and wore very little clothing during a vision quest (LaFlesche 1889:3). White clay gives a ghostlike appearance. Many Plains Indian tribes visited a sacred well in Kansas and clay and paint were sometimes mixed with the sacred water from the well to make body paint (Gatschet 1891:68). This may have provided protection from the sun and insects but also would have been symbolic and protective since paint had supernatural power (Rajnovich 1994).
Newton Winchell (1911:11) cited an unpublished manuscript of Rev. Samuel Pond, which provided an interesting explanation regarding how Unktehi, the Dakota underwater spirit, might have come to be associated with extinct Minnesota megafauna, i.e. the mastodon and mammoth.
"They had seen bones of the mammoth, pieces of which they had in their possession, and they were too well acquainted with comparative anatomy not to know that it was a quadruped. They described the species as resembling the buffalo or ox, but of enormous size. As they worshiped [sic.] many other animals it was natural that the mammoth, which so exceeded all others in size, should be adopted as their chief god, as indeed he was; and to his worship their most solemn religious festivals were dedicated. They supposed that the race was still in existence, and as they were never seen on land, and their bones were found in low, wet places they concluded that their dwelling was in the water. Their bones were highly prized for their magical powers, and perhaps were as valuable to them as relics as those of the saint are to a devout Catholic. A Dakota told me that the he had discovered some of the fossil bones in the lake opposite Shakopee, but was unable to raise them without some boat larger than a canoe" [emphasis supplied] (Winchell 1911:11).
Dr. E. D. Neill in his History of Minnesota stated: "The bones of the mastodon, the Dakotahs think, are those of Oanktayhee, and they preserve them with the greatest care in the medicine bag" (Neill 4th ed.:55; cited in Winchell 1911:11).
References cited
Eastman, Mary
1849 Dahcotah; or, Life and Legends of the Sioux around Fort Snelling. J.Wiley, New York.
Gatschet, A. S.
1891 A sacred well in Kansas. Journal of American Folklore 2:68-70.
Hall, Robert L.
1997 An Archaeology of the Soul, North American Indian Belief and Ritual. University of Illinois Press: Urbana and Chicago.
Rajnovich, Grace
1994 Reading Rock Art: Interpreting The Indian Rock Paintings Of The Canadian Shield. Natural Heritage/Natural History Inc., Toronto.
Standing-Bear, Luther
1978 Land of the Spotted Eagle. University of Nebraska, Lincoln and London.
Winchell, Newton H.
1911 The Aborigines of Minnesota. Minnesota Historical Society Press, St. Paul.
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