In the early 19th century, the Slinger area was home to Potawatomi Native Americans, who surrendered the land the United States Federal Government in 1833 through the Treaty of Chicago, which required them to leave Wisconsin by 1838. While many Potawatomis moved west of the Mississippi River to Kansas, some chose to remain, and were known as "strolling Potawatomi" because they were migrant squatters. One band of strolling Potawatomi travelled through Dodge, Jefferson, and Washington counties, and was led by Chief Kewaskum, who had a camp on Pike Lake, west of Slinger. Kewaskum was friendly with the white settlers who began arriving in the 1840s. He died sometime between 1847 and 1850, and the early settlers named the Village of Kewaskum in his honor. Itinerant Potawatomis lived in Washington County into the late 19th century, when many of them gathered in northern Wisconsin to form the Forest County Potawatomi Community.