Last Updated on October 14, 2013 by Dennis
A complete listing of all the Indian villages, towns and settlements as listed in Handbook of Americans North of Mexico.
Chicago (Sauk, Fox, and Kickapoo: shĕkagua, ‘skunk’ , and shĕkakohĕgi ‘place of the skunk’ , an ancient name for the s. part of L. Michigan, due, it is said, to a large skunk that once lived along the s. shores and was killed in the lake by a party of fox hunters. W. J.) . A Miami village on the site of Chicago, Ill., at the period of the earliest explorations in that region, 1670-1700. A French document of 1695 makes it a Wea village at that time (N. Y. Doc. Col. Hist, ix, 619, 1855). Situated on one of the routes to the Mississippi, it was a place of importance from an early date. It was the seat of the Jesuit mission of St Joseph; Marquette and Joliet passed by it on their return from their exploration of the Mississippi, and Marquette subsequently passed a winter there. Allouez took the same route in 1677, as did La Salle on his second journey, and Joutel and Cavelier were at Chicago in 1687-88, followed by La Hontan the following year. Chicago was also the name of a chief of the Illinois about 1725. See Hoffman in 14th Rep. B. A. E., 238.