Editing Mankato, Minnesota (section)

==History==
[[File:Blue Earth County History Center and Museum SW.jpg|thumb|left|[[Blue Earth County History Center]]]]
Mankato Township was not settled by European Americans until [[Parsons King Johnson]] in February 1852, as part of the 19th-century migration of people from the east across the Midwest. New residents organized the city of Mankato on May 11, 1858, the day Minnesota became a state. The city was organized by Johnson, [[Henry Jackson (Minnesota pioneer)|Henry Jackson]], [[Daniel A. Robertson]], Justus C. Ramsey, and others. A popular story says that the city was supposed to have been named ''Mahkato'', but a typographical error by a clerk established the name as Mankato.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.blueearthcountymn.gov/164/History |title=History of Blue Earth County |website=Blue Earth County, Minnesota |access-date=November 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190814195748/https://www.blueearthcountymn.gov/164/History |archive-date=August 14, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref> According to [[Warren Upham]], quoting historian Thomas Hughes of Mankato, "The honor of christening the new city was accorded to Col. Robertson. He had taken the name from Nicollet's book, in which the French explorer compared the 'Mahkato' or Blue Earth River, with all its tributaries, to the water nymphs and their uncle in the German legend of [[Ondine (mythology)|Undine]]...No more appropriate name could be given the new city, than that of the noble river at whose mouth it is located."<ref name="Upham">{{Cite book |title=Minnesota Place Names, A Geographical Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition |last=Upham |first=Warren |publisher=Minnesota Historical Society |year=2001 |isbn=0-87351-396-7 |location=Saint Paul, Minnesota |page=65 |author-link=Warren Upham}}</ref> While it is uncertain that the city was intended to be called Mahkato, the Dakota called the river ''Makato Osa Watapa'' ("the river where blue earth is gathered"). The Anglo settlers adapted that as "Blue Earth River".<ref name="Upham" /> [[Frederick Webb Hodge]], in the ''Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico'', said the town was named after the older of the two like-named chiefs of the [[Mdewakanton]] nation of the Santee Dakota, whose village stood on or near the site of the present town.

''[[Ishtakhaba]]'', also known as Chief Sleepy Eye, of the [[Sisseton]] band, was said to have directed settlers to this location. He said the site at the confluence of the Minnesota and [[Blue Earth River]]s was well suited to building and river traffic, and yet safe from flooding.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ish Tak Ha Be (Sleepy Eye) |work=Minnesota State University Mankato |access-date=July 5, 2021 |date=May 31, 2010 |url=http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/history/mncultures/sleepyeye.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100531190751/http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/history/mncultures/sleepyeye.html |archive-date=May 31, 2010}}</ref>

[[File:Execution of 38 Sioux Indians at Mankato Minnesota 1862.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Dakota War of 1862#Execution|mass execution]] of the 38 [[Sioux]] (Dakota) at Mankato, Minnesota, 1862]] On December 26, 1862, [[United States Volunteers]] of the State of Minnesota carried out the largest mass execution in [[History of the United States|U.S. history]] at Mankato after the [[Dakota War of 1862]]. Companies of the [[7th Minnesota Infantry Regiment|7th]], [[8th Minnesota Infantry Regiment|8th]], [[9th Minnesota Infantry Regiment|9th]], [[10th Minnesota Infantry Regiment]]s, and Minnesota Cavalry oversaw the hanging of 38 men: 35 Santee Sioux and 3 biracial French/native American, for their involvement in the war crimes committed during the uprising.<ref name="9NPS">{{Cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-battle-units-detail.htm?battleUnitCode=UMN0009RI|title=Battle Unit Details - The Civil War (U.S. National Park Service)|website=www.nps.gov|accessdate=March 20, 2025}}</ref><ref name="10NPS">{{Cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-battle-units-detail.htm?battleUnitCode=UMN0010RI|title=Battle Unit Details - The Civil War (U.S. National Park Service)|website=www.nps.gov|accessdate=March 20, 2025}}</ref>   A USV military tribunal reviewed nearly 500 cases, of which 303 received a death sentence, but [[Abraham Lincoln|President Lincoln]] requested the court files. He reviewed them, placing the rape cases at the top, and pardoning 265. [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal]] Bishop [[Henry Benjamin Whipple]] urged leniency to which Lincoln responded that he had to take a balanced approach. His position and dismissals were unpopular in Minnesota. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the event a large granite marker was erected that stood at the site until 1971, when the city took it down. Today, a different monument marks the execution site. Across the street are two monuments to the Native Americans in what it called Reconciliation Park. The Blue Earth County Library, Main street and Reconciliation Park cover the immediate vicinity of the execution site.

In 1880, Mankato was Minnesota's fourth-most populous city, with 5,500 residents.<ref>''Minnesota Place Names: A Geographical Encyclopedia'', Minnesota Historical Society website. http://mnplaces.mnhs.org/upham/index.cfm {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070620200046/http://mnplaces.mnhs.org/upham/index.cfm |date=June 20, 2007}}</ref>

Former Vice President [[Schuyler Colfax]] died while traveling through Mankato on January 13, 1885.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Glass |first1=Andrew |title=Former House Speaker Schuyler Colfax dies, Jan. 13, 1885 |url=https://www.politico.com/story/2010/01/former-house-speaker-schuyler-colfax-dies-jan-13-1885-031410 |access-date=December 29, 2020 |work=[[Politico]] |date=January 13, 2010 |language=en }}</ref>