ected. There was
much doubt entertained as to the delegate being allowed to take his
seat, but in November he proceeded to Washington, and was admitted,
after considerable discussion.

On the 3d of March, 1849, the delegate succeeded in passing an act
organizing the Territory of Minnesota, the boundaries of which embraced
all the territory between the western boundary of Wisconsin and the
Mississippi river, and also all that was left unappropriated on the
admission of the State of Iowa, which carried our western boundary to
the Missouri river, and included within our limits a large part of what
is now North and South Dakota.

The passage of this act was the first step in the creation of Minnesota.
No part of the country had ever before borne that name. The word is
composed of two Sioux words, "Minne," which means water, and "Sota,"
which means the condition of the sky when fleecy white clouds are seen
floating slowly and quietly over it. It has been translated, "sky
tinted," giving to the word Minnesota the meaning of sky-tinted water.
The name originated in the fact that, in the early days, the river now
called Minnesota used to rise very rapidly in the spring, and there was
constantly a caving in of the banks, which disturbed its otherwise
pellucid waters, and gave them the appearance of the sky when covered
with the light clouds I have mentioned. The similarity was heightened by
the current keeping the disturbing element constantly in motion. There
is a town just above St. Peter, called Kasota, which means "cloudy sky;"
not stormy or threatening, but a sky dotted with fleecy white clouds.
The best conception of this word can be found by pouring a few drops of
milk into a glass of clear water, and observing the cloudy disturbance.

The principal river in the territory was then called the St. Peters
river, but the name was changed to the Minnesota.

EDUCATION.

An act organizing a territory simply creates a government for its
inhabitants, limiting and regulating its powers, executive, legislative
and judicial, and in our country they generally resemble each other in
all essential features. But the organic act of Minnesota contained one
provision never before found in any that preceded it. It had been
customary to donate to the territory and future state, one section of
land in each surveyed township for school purposes, and section 16 had
been selected as the one, but in the Minnesota act, the donation was