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About Devils Lake, ND

The present site of Devils Lake was historically territory of the Dakota people. However, Sisseton, Wahpeton, and Cut-Head bands of Dakotas were relocated to the Spirit Lake Reservation as a result of the 1867 treaty with the United States that established a reservation for Dakotas who had not been forcibly relocated to Crow Creek Reservation in what is now called South Dakota. The name "Devils Lake" is a calque of the Dakota phrase mni wak’áŋ (literally: spirit water), which is also reflected in the names of the Spirit Lake Tribe and the nearby town of Minnewaukan. The Dakota called the lake mni wak’áŋ, which separately translate as mni (water) and wak’áŋ (literally "pure source" but often translated as "spirit" or "sacred"). European-American settlers misconstrued this name to mean "Bad Spirit Lake", or "Devils Lake." The "bad" referred to the high salinity of the lake, making it unfit to drink, and "spirit" meant the mirages often seen across the water.