South St. Paul's first name was lacrosse

December 22, 2:34 PMSouth St. Paul ExaminerRob Shirk

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Lacrosse

South St. Paul is built over land that once was Kaposia Village, home of the Kaposia band of the massive Mdewakanton Sioux tribe. There are markers on North Concord Street commemorating the encampment. 

It is not named after a god or animal or anything else so exotic. It was named after a sport. The area occupied by by Little Crow's band was named due to the agility and speed of the men playing...lacrosse.

The game of lacrosse was known as Tin-Ta Ta-Ka-Psi-Ca (Tin-Ta means prairie) and Ta-Ka-Psi-Ca (means the game of lacrosse). As usual, the latter spelling was changed by the white settlers to Ka-Po-Ja and pronounced Kaposia. The tribe played on a regional triangular field one half mile in length at the junction of the St. Croix and Mississippi Rivers, just downriver from the current South St. Paul boundaries.

There were "suburbs" , as well. A tee pee site (for winter) occupied land where Lincoln Center stands today on 9th Ave. and another common camp was located near where the high school football field is today on the hill to the west.

Perhaps some have thought of the names for some of our bordering cities if it were recorded for the prowess of their teams. Minneapolis could be remembered for the Vikings as "Never Win The Big One, Minnesota." St. Paul could be named for the Minnesota Wild as "Don't Pay A Nickle For A Player, Minnesota".

We'll stick with South St. Paul, "Never Win The State Boy's Championship In Hockey, Minnesota". Perhaps we should start playing lacrosse.