Santee

Note: According to Stephen Riggs (A Dakota-English Dictionary [Washington, 1890], p. 206), "why this name has been given them by their brethren is still a matter of conjecture; perhaps because they pitched their tents formerly at Isaŋtamde, or Knife Lake, one of those which go under the denomination of Mille Lacs; or, perhaps, it was given to them because they lived nearer the Isaŋtaŋka, or Big Knives, i.e., the Americans." Eugene Buechel and Paul Manhart (Lakota Dictionary, new comprehensive edition [University of Nebraska Press, 2002]) suggest more generally that the Santee were "so called because they used to stay long at the place where they got the material for their stone knives."