Punished Woman's Lake

Long ago, a band of Sioux camped by a small lake.  Each Sioux maiden dreamed of the brave who would bring gifts. Her father would accept the gifts and she would become the brave's wife.

We-wa-ke, the fairest maiden in the camp, dreamed only of Big Eagle. Four times Big Eagle had come, and four times her father had rejected him. Then one day, old White Tail Wolf  came. We-wa-ke begged her father to refuse his gifts, but her father accepted and the grizzled and toothless chieftain dragged her weeping to his lodge.

That night, while White Tail Wolf celebrated, Big Eagle and We-wa-ke rode away on a pony. When the old chief found them gone, he summoned his best trackers. Soon the braves returned with the two lovers bound between them. Knowing that death was near, We-wa-ke and Big Eagle bravely declared their love for each other and vowed to meet in the Happy Hunting Grounds. Their words enraged the old chief, and he plunged his knife into Big Eagle's breast. We-wa-ke rushed to her dying lover's side and kissed him. Angrier still, White Tail Wolf ordered his wife bound to a tree and beaten. Then he shot an arrow into her heart.

The two lovers were buried side by side, and old White Tail Wolf called upon the Evil Spirit to take them to the Land of  Everlasting Sorrow. But the Great Spirit heard his awful words and struck White Tail Wolf dead with a bolt of lightning.

The tribe soon moved westward. But they never forgot the sorrow and death left on the shore of Punished Woman's Lake.