The Mdewakantonwan were so called from their former habitat, Mdewakan, or Mysterious lake, commonly called Spirit lake, one of the Mille Lacs in Minnesota. The whole name means Mysterious Lake village, and the term was used by De l'Isle as early as 1703. The Mdewakantonwan were the original Santee, but the white people, following the usage of the IhaÑktonwan, IhaÑktonwanna, and Titonwan, now extend that name to the Waqpekute, Waqpetonwan, and Sisitonwan. The gentes of the Mdewakantonwan are as follows:2

1. Kiyuksa, Breakers (of the law or custom); so called because members of this gens disregarded the marriage law by taking wives within the gens.

2. Qe-mini-tcan (Ḣe-mini-ćaɳ) or Qemnitca (Ḣemnića), literally, "Mountain-water-wood;" so called from a hill covered with timber that appears to rise out of the water. This was the gens of Red Wing, whose village was a short distance from Lake Pepin, Minnesota.

3. Kap'oja (Kap̣oźa), Not encumbered-with-much-baggage; "Light Infantry." "Kaposia, or Little Crow's village," in Minnesota, in 1852.

4. Maxa-yute-cni (Maġa-yute-'sni), Eats-no-geese.

5. Qeyata-otonwe (Ḣeyata-otoɳwe), of-its-chief-Hake-wacte (Hake waṡte); Qeyata-tonwan (Ḣeyata-toɳwaɳ) of Reverend A.L. Riggs, Village-back-from-the-river.