Chalahgawtha (or Chillicothe) was the name of one of the two principal septs of the Shawnee tribe of Native Americans in the Ohio Country in North America during the 18th century, as well as the name one of the principal village of this sept. The village itself was moved at least four times in present-day Ohio after being destroyed.

The Chalahgawtha was essentially the northern sept of the Shawnee, which along with the Thawegila (southern Shawnee), were "keepers of the council fire", controlling much of the political affairs of the tribe, including the relations of the tribe with the British and Americans.

The village was an important political and trading center in the Ohio Country. The Shawnee had returned to the area of present-day Ohio and West Virginia in the early 18th century after having been previously driven from the region by the Iroquois around 1660 during the Beaver Wars.

The village was the birth place in 1768 of Tecumseh, who later led an unsuccessful war of Native Americans against the Americans during the War of 1812. At the time, the village was located along the banks of the Little Miami River near modern-day Xenia, Ohio .

In 1782 during the American Revolutionary War was the site of a meeting between the Ohio Nations at the British that led to the successful defeat of the Kentucky militia at the Battle of Blue Licks two weeks later.

The village was abandoned after 1817 with the signing of the Fort Meigs Treaty in which the Shawnee, greatly weakened and reduced in number in Ohio, agreed to relinquish their remaining lands in Ohio for reservation lands west of the Mississippi River.

See also

• Kittanning

External link

• Shawnee History