Corrupt of Kakiweonan = "I cross a point of land by boat." Such a point of land is the peninsula between Green Bay and Lake Michigan which is almost cut through by Sturgeon Bay. From Kakiweonan we also have Keweena, similarly situated on a peninsula almost severed by water.kee-wan-neeg = dwellers at the portage kee-wan-nee = prairie henThe name of a kind of duck. Prairie hen. (formerly Thomas Wood's river) Kenaunee is a corrupt form of Kakiweonan, where people traverse a point of land in a canoe or boat, there being a water passage. Kewaunee-"Prairie hen" or "to go around." Kewaunee was named for its chief river, which was early known as Wood's River. In 1834 Joshua Hathaway, an early Wisconsin surveyor, rechristened it from the Chippewa word which he translated as "prairie hen."Verwyst, in Id. xii, p. 392, considers the word equivalent to a peninsula, almost surrounded by water, from the Chppewa term, "I cross a point of land by boat."

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[Source: Card file at the WHS Library reference deskWis. Hist. Coll. Vol. 1Milwaukee Journal, Feb. 21, 1932.A. Skinner in Milwuakee Public Museum Bull, v. 6. p. 399]