Known as Akwawaywaning

Traditional Indian Burial Grounds

"Just north of Anakwad's farm was Chief Lake Cemetery. The cemetery was filled with the spirit houses of deceased villagers. Some elders believe, like Bill Bineshi Baker, that there are likely over 130 graves located at the site.

The cemetery, which is heavily secluded today from traffic in the area, fell into neglect with brush growing throughout. Bill Morrow, a great-grandson of Anakwad, cleaned the cemetery and restored it to a respectful appearance.

The cemetery has been used several times in the past five years and may require greater attention in the coming years to regular grooming.

It holds the remains of such distinguished Chief Lake villagers as John Scott and his wife, Gus and Mishakwad Carroll, Chief Anakwad (Pete Cloud), Frank Cloud, John Pete Cloud, Adjidjakons, John Mustache, William and Esther Rufus, William Rufus, Jr.,

There is very little trace, outside the marks in the ground of log cabin foundations, of any of the homes which once surrounded the small cemetery.

The peninsula once owned by Anakwad as a part of his allotment, was sold by his son, John Pete, to non-Indians for a small fraction of its value and now houses the Daggett's Resort.
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Akwawaywaning, the name given to the Chief Lake area, meant "fishing on top of the ice."

The village was initially settled by the Ojibwa Indians who branched off from the village of Odawasagaegun (Reserve village) in the late 1700s. The site was valued for its manomin (wild rice) which supplied the entire tribe for many generations of time.

The treaties changed the lifestyle of the Chief Lake villagers, curtailing their migratory food-gathering travels throughout northern Wisconsin. It supplanted the Ojibwa culture with government annuities and farms.

The land allotment process opened the reservation to a logging economy, further stripping the reservation of its valued resources.

The damming of the Chippewa Flowage in 1923 completely destroyed the manomin beds at Chief Lake, further abating the traditional culture of the villagers.

When the fathers of the village, such as Anakwad, Gus Carroll, Pete Martin, John Scott, John Mustache, and Makade Winangebi passed on into the Spirit World and were interred in the Chief Lake Cemetery, their children moved away, creating what some considered a "ghost town".

Only a few of the descendants remain, to remember and carry on the life of the once prosperous village.

Today, twelve HUD homes and a handful of private Indian homes exist near the site of the old village. The contemporary term "Six Mile Corner" is more identifiable to the younger Indians today than the phrase "Chief Lake".

(source: St. Germaine, Rick. "Chief Lake Indian Village." Lac Courte Oreilles Journal, August 1986)