History of Lakota

The present town of Lakota was originally named Germania. The original town site of Germania was surveyed and filed for record by the Northern Iowa Land and Town Lot Company, August 26, 1892. The town received its name from the German heritage of many of the early settlers in the area. In 1918, the hysteria of World War I was sweeping the country. Residents couldn’t change their origin to protect themselves from the popular hatred of the time, but they could take the stigma of all things German from the town by wiping its name off the map, which they did. An election was held on October 1, 1918 to vote to change the name of Germania, Iowa to Lakota, Iowa. A canvas of the votes showed there were 48 yes and 32 no votes cast. Mayor J. Gus Thaves filed the certificate changing the name to Lakota at the Kossuth County Courthouse on October 16, 1918. However the name was not officially changed by the post office until August 5, 1919. The town was renamed Lakota, an Indian word with several different translations. Some say Lakota means “beautiful prairie” or as other translations say Lakota means “plenty”, others say it means “allies”.