Flashy Walker

The name "Milwaukee" comes from an Algonquian word millioke, meaning "good", "beautiful" and "pleasant land" (compare Potawatomi: minwaking, Ojibwe: ominowakiing) or "gathering place [by the water]" (compare Potawatomi: manwaking, Ojibwe: omaniwakiing). The name has a less pleasant connotation in the Menominee language, where it is called Māēnāēwah, "some misfortune happens". Indigenous cultures lived along the waterways for thousands of years. The first recorded inhabitants of the Milwaukee area are the historic Menominee, Fox, Mascouten, Sauk, Potawatomi, and Ojibwe (all Algic/Algonquian peoples); and Ho-Chunk (Winnebago, a Siouan people) Native American tribes. Many of these people had lived around Green Bay before migrating to the Milwaukee area around the time of European contact.