Place Names: Chicago, Illinois

America is full of place names of Native origin.  States, counties and towns, mountains, bodies of water and other locations more often then not owe their name to a Native place name or prominent Native person in the area.  So how about Chicago, Illinois?  Is the famous city named after a Native leader, or did they coincidentally share the same or similar name?

Chicagou, sometimes known as Agapit Chicagou was an 18th century leader of the Michigamea tribe.  Little is known about his life other than two prominent events in which he participated.  In 1725, he and several other leaders from the Illinois area were sponsored a trip to Paris by the Company of the Indies to see King Louis XV.  Their visit is mentioned in a news sheet of the time, the Mercure de Paris.  The leaders swore allegiance to Louis, who hosted them in a rabbit hunt the next day.  Like other prominent visitors to the Paris, they were feted at the theatre, where they performed a selection of traditional dances.  The composer Jean-Phillippe Rameau was inspired by this performance to write a piece for harpsichord entitled "Les Sauvages". 

The Michigamea were part of the Illini Confederacy, a point noted by a French missionary when he observed an Illini delegation come to swear allegiance again and noted the Chicagou was at the head of his warriors representing the Michigamea.  Later, Chicagou participated in the Chickasaw Wars in 1736.  Apparently, he was deceased soon after, as another French traveler recorded a meeting with the son of the late Chief Chicagou.

So, what about Chicago?  The word comes from a Miami word Shikaakwa, referring to ramps (an onion-like vegetable), or garlic.  As early as 1687, a French explorer noted that he had arrived at a place called Chicagou because of the large quantity of wild garlic growing in the area.  At the time, Chicago was on Potawatomi land, not Michigamea.  It would have been the Potawatomi's right to cede the land, as they did in the Treaty of Greenville of 1795.  There is no record of Chief Chicagou having ceded land to anyone, though he is known to have pledged allegiance to the King of France on two separate occasions.  Thus, the naming of the man and the city have separate origins and the city is not named after the Michigamea leader.