During the Moon of the Harvest in August 1773, a band of Sioux camped on the shore of this lake. We-Wa-Ke, the fairest maiden in the camp, loved a young warrior named Big Eagle, whose courage on the hunt and in battle surpassed that of the other young men of the tribe. When Big Eagle came to their lodge with gifts and asked to marry her, We-Wa-Ke's father refused him and instead accepted the gifts of White Tail Wolf, a 60 year old chief. As the tribe celebrated that union, We-Wa-Ke and Big Eagle tried to escape on his pony, but other warriors quickly caught them and brought them back to the hill overlooking the lake. There the old chief saw the lovers raise their heads proudly, declare their love for each other, and vow to meet in the Happy Hunting Grounds. Enraged, he killed Big Eagle with his knife, and We-Wa-Ke was bound to a tree on the shore of the lake, where the old chief shot an arrow into her heart. He then ordered the lovers buried side by side on the hill and had stones placed in the form of a warrior and a maid as a shameful reminder to all Indians. As he called for the Evil Spirits to take them to the Land of Ever-Lasting Sorrow, the Great Spirit caused a lightning bolt to flash from the clear blue sky and strike the old chief dead. The band piled stones on his body to remind all that he was a murderer and an outcast from the tribe, and from that time on the lake was known as Punished Woman's Lake.