The park preserves habitation sites and mound groups, believed to date between 3000 BC and 1750 AD, that document Dakota Indian culture and Ojibwe-Dakota relationships.

The earliest site dates to the Archaic period and shows evidence of copper tool manufacture.

Ojibwe oral tradition, published by William Whipple Warren, suggests that there was a battle in which they successfully took control of the area from the Lakota.

The next 50 years resulted in a large quantity of trees being felled and floated down the Rum River or across Mille Lacs Lake to sawmills.

He named the area "Izatys", but his poor handwriting led people to mistake the "Iz" as a "K".