Dakota County, Nebraska

Dakota County, Nebraska
Dakota County courthouse in Dakota City
Location in the U.S. state of Nebraska
Nebraska's location in the U.S.
Founded	March 7, 1855
Named for	Dakota people
Seat	Dakota City
Largest city	South Sioux City
Area
• Total	267 sq mi (692 km2)
• Land	264 sq mi (684 km2)
• Water	3.2 sq mi (8 km2), 1.2%
Population (est.)
• (2015)	20,781
• Density	78/sq mi (30/km²)
Congressional district	3rd
Time zone	Central: UTC-6/-5
Website	www.dakotacountyne.org

Dakota County is a county in the U.S. state of Nebraska. As of the 2010 census, the population was 21,006. Its county seat is Dakota City.

Dakota County is part of the Sioux City, IA–NE–SD Metropolitan Statistical Area.

In the Nebraska license plate system, Dakota County is represented by the prefix 70 (it had the 70th-largest number of vehicles registered in the county when the license plate system was established in 1922). In August 2009, the Dakota County Board of Commissioners reversed an decision to abandon this system for alphanumeric plates upon introduction of new license plates in 2011.Douglas, Lancaster, and Sarpy Counties remain the only counties with alphanumeric plates in the state.

Succeeding cultures of indigenous peoples lived along the Missouri River for thousands of years. By 1775, the Omaha people had migrated west of the Missouri, where they established a major settlement, which they called Ton-wa-tonga, meaning the Big Village. It had about 1100 residents. From here, the Omaha controlled fur trading on the upper Missouri River with other tribes and with French-Canadian traders, often called voyageurs. The Omaha were the first of the Northern Plains tribes to have adopted an equestrian culture.

Dakota County was formed by European-American settlers in 1855. They named it after the historic Dakota Sioux tribe, who were powerful in the area of Nebraska and South Dakota. By this time, the Omaha were concentrated further south in what became the state of Nebraska.