Chalaghawtha

The Chalaghawtha, or Chillicothe, were one of five Shawnee divisions, traditionally supplying the Shawnee confederacy's political leadership. The chief's village shared the name, and each forced move produced a new town called Chillicothe.

From about 1734 the Lower Shawnee Town on the Ohio River grew into a trading hub of over 1,200 people before being abandoned in 1758. On the Scioto, Tecumseh was likely born in a Chillicothe in 1768, and Virginia militia imposed a border settlement after Dunmore's War of 1774.

The Old Chillicothe on the Little Miami, home of war chief Blackfish, held Daniel Boone captive for months in 1778; Blackfish died of a wound in 1779 and George Rogers Clark burned it in 1780. Successive Chillicothes later rose on the Great Miami, St. Mary's and Maumee as the Shawnee retreated before American expansion.