During the Moon of the Harvest (August) in 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 in hunting and 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 pursued, caught, and brought them back to the hill overlooking the lake. There the old chief saw the lovers raise their heads proudly, declare their love, and vow to meet in the Happy Hunting Grounds. Enraged, he killed Big Eagle with his knife, then ordered We-Wa-Ke bound to a tree on the shore and shot an arrow into her heart. He had the lovers buried side by side on the hill and ordered stones placed in the form of a warrior and a maid as a shameful reminder to all Indians. When he called on Evil Spirits to take them to the Land of Ever-Lasting Sorrow, the Great Spirit answered with a lightning bolt from the clear blue sky that struck him dead. The band then piled stones on the chief's body to remind all that he was a murderer and an outcast from the tribe, and from that time the lake was known as Punished Woman's Lake.