Chapter 2
-- Compiled by the Cumberland Women's Club
and Published by the Cumberland Advocate
1874-1974
(used by permission of the Cumberland Advocate)
Donated by Linda Mott
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The First Indians of What is Now Cumberland
by Ben H. Connor
Sometime
in the 1850s a small band of Indians left their original home on Lake Court
O'Reilles in Sawyer County on a nomadic trip that took them south to Red
Cedar Lake where they lived for a time before moving on down the Red Cedar
River to Rice Lake. Time being no object, they made their home on the shores
of Rice Lake for a few years. Their next move was west to the Yellow River
where they camped before moving on to a lake they called Way-ko-ne-ma-daw-wang-gog,
meaning Lake of the Beavers, which we call Beaver Dam Lake. This takes
us to about 1859 or 1860. They lived on the Island until
the white settlers began coming
in, which was from 1872 on. The main families of this Expedition were the
Little Pipes and Kasabins. Little Pipe, evidently
the leader, took up a small homestead on the shore of Sand Lake, where
the village is today and where many of the descendents still live. Little
Pipe had a livid scar on his upper lip and was known to early settlers
as "Cut Lip." He drowned at the head of Beaver
Dam Lake, about 1897, when his birch canoe capsized when he and his wife
were on their way home from Cumberland. She swam safely to shore.
These facts were obtained from
my old friend, John Bisonette, who was a grandson
of Little Pipe. He was born at Sand Lake in 1883 and passed away in November
1973 at 90 years of age.
Thanks for stopping by!
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