Hathawekela

The Hathawekela were one of the five divisions of the Shawnee, the Algonquian-speaking people of the Northeastern Woodlands, their name also appearing as Thaawikila or Thawegila and as Chalaqua in French records. They claimed to be the first created of the Shawnee divisions and the elder brothers of the tribe, and the Shawnee's traditional political leadership came from their patrilineal line.

Shortly after 1674 the Hathawekela settled on the Savannah River, and in 1681 they aided the colony of South Carolina by driving the Westo from the middle Savannah. Around 1697 they left the South and settled on the Susquehanna and Allegheny rivers in Pennsylvania, where the town of Sewickley probably preserves their name.

In the nineteenth century the Hathawekela were removed beyond the Mississippi, and they became the principal component of the Absentee-Shawnee of Indian Territory.