Page "Chicago" Paragraph 5

The name " Chicago " is derived from a French rendering of the Native American word shikaakwa, translated as " wild onion " or " wild garlic ," from the Miami-Illinois language.

The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as " Checagou " was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir written about the time.

The wild garlic plants, Allium tricoccum, were described by LaSalle's comrade, naturalist-diarist Henri Joutel, in his journal of LaSalle's last expedition.