by Carrie Moritz, Gazette
Last Thursday, the Minnehaha County Historical Society hosted an "Ice Cream Social" in Garretson's Split Rock Park. The social is held annually, and this was the first time they were in Garretson.
"This is a really historical area up here," said Rick Lingberg, President of the Minnehaha County Historical Society, as he introduced everyone to the gathering of approximately 50 people. Pie and ice cream were provided by the hosts, Ken and Jean Barber, extraordinarily giving folks who plied the few child attendees with extra servings of ice cream.
The featured speaker was Bruce Rekstad, who has been well-known in the community for the USS Jesse James Pontoon Tours, which have been going for over 30 years. Because of that, and because Rekstad has been teaching Native American Studies at Washington High School for quite some time, he was a good resource to present on the history of the area, which is steeped in Native American lore.
Rekstad began by introducing the audience to the native peoples who had occupied the Garretson and Sioux Falls area prior to the pioneers, the Dakota (the Lakota are found West River). He pointed out that the name, Sioux, actually means "snake people" or "little enemy," and is a derogatory name.
However, he said, it was the Dakota's word for "falling waters" that became the name of our county, Minnehaha. And the Dakota name for Split Rock Creek was "Wak-pah-kianta-iah," (phonetic spelling) or "River Splitting Rock" on the old maps, according to Rekstad. (Some sources have "Eminija" as the original name, which means the same.)
Rekstad admitted that beyond the amount of information he gives out nearly daily during the summers on his pontoon tours, he was relying on the majority of his information for his speech from a book called, "The Split Rock Influence," by Jeanne Schulte Richardson.
The "Split Rock Influence" was published in 1996, and is out of print, but is a valuable resource on the history of the towns along the creek. Richardson pointed out that despite its unfamiliarity (it was neglected on maps for years), it was worthy of recognition.
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