Early History of Lake Maxinkuckee - First Settler About the Lake  

The owners of the land and the first settlers about the lake of which any record can be found were American Indians known as the Pottawattomies. They belonged to the great Al-gon-quin family.

The first trace we have of them locates their territory in the Lake Superior region on the islands at the entrance of Green Bay. About 1817 it was estimated that there were in the region north of the Wabash river and south of Lake Michigan something more that 2,000 Pottawatomies, nearly one-half of them located in the region of country surrounding Maxinkuckee Lake, embracing Marshall, Cass, Fulton, Pulaski, St. Joseph and Kosciusko counties.

At that time they no uniform abiding place or residence. During the fall, winter and a porion of the spring thery were scattered in the woods hunting and fishing. Their wigwams were made of poles, stuck in the ground and tied together with stips of bark, slender hickory wythes or rawhide strings. They were covered with bark or a kind of mat, out of a growth of flag grass. There was an occasional rude hut made of logs or poles, but nearly all the dwellings were wigwams hastily put up as here described.

They raised some corn, but lived principally on wild game, fish, fruits, nuts, and roots, and were clothed during cold weather with blankets and untanned skins.