Chillicothe, the town that moves around

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In the America of today, the Ohio town of Chillicothe has a fixed name. The town name doesn’t ever designate more than that one place.

In Shawnee culture, however, the village name of Chillicothe would move from one location to another.

“Chillicothe” was the name of a Shawnee clan (the Shawnee themselves used the word Chalahgawtha; Chillicothe is the accepted English spelling). The principal leader of the 5 Shawnee clans could only come from the Chillicothe clan.

The Shawnee word “Chalahgawtha” translates as “principal town” or “town at the leaning bank.”

When a village was called “Chillicothe”, it meant that it was home to the principal leader. It was the capital city of the Shawnee until the death of that person. Then the capital would move to the home village of the next person selected to lead.

That village would then become Chillicothe.

One Chillicothe was located on the site of the modern city of Piqua. Another was on the Scioto River south of Circleville at, or near, modern-day Westfall.

A third Chillicothe was approximately three miles north of Xenia. When the Shawnee captured Simon Kenton in 1778, they brought him to this town.

A fourth Chillicothe was at Frankfort along Paint Creek in Ross County. A fifth Chillicothe was at Hopetown, three miles north of present-day Chillicothe.

Sources: https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Chillicothe,_Ohio

https://www.howderfamily.com/blog/multichillicothe/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalahgawtha

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