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. Henri Joutel, in his journal of 1688, noted that the
wild garlic, called "chicagoua," grew abundantly in the area. During
the mid-18th century, the area was inhabited by a Native American tribe known
as the Potawatomi, who had taken the place of the Miami and Sauk and Fox
