Settlement of this place called "Anoka"

Settlement of this place called "Anoka". . , Oral traditions and archaeological evidence suggest early human habitation. Inhabitants hunted game, gathered plants, and made pottery. Conflict between the Dakota, who lived near Lake Mille Lacs, and the Anishinaabeg (Ojibwe) who were moving inland from the Great Lakes, began. Anoka became a border area between the two Nations when the Dakota were driven further south., In 1680, Father Hennepin, a French explorer, was taken up the Rum River by the Ojibwe. He wrote of his camp at the confluence of the Rum and Mississippi that the food was scarce and the berries they had to eat "did more harm than good"., Father Hennepin at the Falls of St. Anthony, painted by Douglas Volk. Courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society., Anoka then became part of the Northwest Territory. Across the Mississippi River was "Louisiana", purchased by the United States from France in 1803. In 1805, Zebulon Pike led an exploratory mission similar to the Lewis and Clark expedition. Pike's party headed into the newly purchased lands on the upper Mississippi and camped at the mouth of the Rum River., Treaties with the Native Americans opened land between the St. Croix and Mississippi Rivers for settlement. The rich forests along the Rum River were one reason the organizers of the State of Wisconsin wanted their western border to be the Rum. Instead, Anoka became part of the Minnesota Territory in 1849. In 1853, a New York doctor, Neil Shaw, signed the name "Anoka" when he registered in a St. Anthony hotel. Similar words in both Dakota and Ojibwe mean, "on both sides" and "river that works," respectively., Dakota Indian treaty delegation to Washington, D.C., 1858. Courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society., Local government began when the County of Anoka was established in 1857 and the town of Anoka became the county seat. After two failed votes in 1858 and 1869, Anoka was incorporated as a city in 1878.