Grey Cloud Island Township is rich in history. It was occupied until 1837 by the Dakota Sioux, who hunted and farmed here. They buried their dead in earthen mounds, of which there are several on the upper and lower islands. 

The name Grey Cloud is a translation of the Sioux name "Mar-pi-ya-ro-to-win" or "Grey Cloud Woman." The first white men were French trappers and traders. Many of the people buried in our cemetery are of Native American and French-Canadian ancestry. The earliest recorded burials are from the 1870s.