Tee Wakacak: The Ho-Chunk Sacred Lake
Near Baraboo, Wisconsin
Long before it appeared on any map, this lake was sacred ground to the Ho-Chunk people, sometimes called the Winnebago. In their language it was Tee Wakacak, a name best translated as Spirit Lake or Sacred Lake. When nineteenth century European settlers reinterpreted the sacred name, they turned it into the ominous name Devils Lake, which has stuck to this day.
To the Ho-Chunk, this was a place of tremendous power. Their traditions tell of an epic struggle between the thunderbirds of the upper world and the water spirits of the deep, a battle so violent it shook the earth and threw up the towering bluffs that ring the water. Around a thousand years ago, people of what archaeologists call the Effigy Mound culture shaped low mounds of earth here into the forms of birds, bears, and other creatures, some still faintly visible near the shore.
The Ho-Chunk consider Devils Lake and the surrounding hills part of their ancestral homeland, tied to nineteen or more culturally associated nations. As you look across the still water toward those ancient cliffs, remember that you are standing in a cathedral far older than any built by human hands.
