Lake of the Woods

sky blue water

Kakaygeesick was born on the southern shore of Lake of the Woods in what is now the state of Minnesota at its northernmost tip. He was one of three sons to Chief Ay Ash Wash. This one family lived here since at least 1795.

When you look at a map of the waterways in the state of Minnesota, see the outline of the “chimney” at the top. The blue inside there is Lake of the Woods. Muskeg Bay is where Kakaygeesick and his relations lived. The family fished and trapped on the southern shores of the bay in summer, and they hunted and harvested wild rice in fall and winter further north up into the chimney.

[Source: CISGeography.com]

Zoom in to that area where Manitoba, Minnesota and Ontario meet. The U.S. Canadian border cuts right across Lake of the Woods as marked by the white line which outlines the chimney on the map.

“When they created their border between Canada and the U.S., they took a knife and split me in two,” Chief Ay Ash Wash told his son Kakaygeesick, who retold this story many times to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Don Kakaygeesick, his great-grandson, told me the story. The chief would pretend to stab a hunting knife into his heart and slash it down his torso ripping him in two.