Native American Place Names

It has been 190 years since the Treaty of Chicago (1833) required the Potawatomi, Chippewa and Ottawa peoples to vacate their lands and move west of the Mississippi River. 

Today, local place names hold reminders of Native peoples, the original stewards of the land on which we live. 

The Fox River is a major waterway and tributary of the Illinois River, and its' headwaters are northwest of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Fox enters Illinois and passes through Lake County by way of the Chain O' Lakes and meanders through western Cuba Township on its way south to the Illinois River at Ottawa, Illinois. 

The river is named for the Fox Tribe (Menominee) of Wisconsin, whose self-given name was "Red Earth People." In the 17th century, explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette interpreted their name as "Renard," meaning "Fox" in French, referencing the red color of foxes. Fox Lake is the progeny of the Fox River. (Source: Encyclopedia of Native Tribes of North America, Michael Johnson, 1993; Place Names of Illinois, Edward Callary, 2008). 

Photo postcard view of Fox Lake with the Illinois Hotel and Willis Inn resort in the distance at center and right respectively, circa 1910. BBDM M-86.1.165.

The name for Nippersink Lake in Grant Township, north of Grand Avenue, is probably of Potawatomi origin and signifies "at the little water/lake." The post office at Fox Lake was called Nippersink until 1901.

Photo postcard of iron bridge over Indian Creek, Half Day (today's Lincolnshire), circa 1910. BBDM 92.27.82.

The village of Indian Creek was named for the creek of the same name, which runs through Lincolnshire. The creek is apparently named in remembrance of the Native American villages found in this vicinity before settlement by newcomers. There is an Indian Lake in Lake Barrington, presumably named to honor Native Americans as well.

Sequoit Creek in Antioch got its name from early settlers who came from Oneida County, New York where there is a Sauquoit Creek. The word "Sauquoit" is Iroquois and possibly means "smooth pebbles in the bed of a stream." 

The Skokie River was historically a large meandering stream that included sedge meadow and wet prairie, and ran from Waukegan Township south to Chicago. During early non-Native settlement in the mid-1800s, farmers partially drained the area to plant crops. In the early 1900s, the river became a drainage ditch. The name "Skokie" comes from the Potawatomi word Chewab Skokie for "big wet prairie." 

The village of Mettawa adopted its name in 1960 to avoid such common appellations as grove, lake and woods. Mettawa was a Potawatomi leader/chief whose village was near the junction of the Des Plaines River and Indian Creek. Mettawa was unable to attend the signing of the Treaty of Chicago in 1833, but his friend, Aptakisic wore his moccasins to represent him at the proceedings.

Wauconda large letter postcard, Curt Teich Company, 1950. OCH1780.

Wauconda is a term used by American Indians (spelled Wakonda) to signify "when the power believed to animate all natural forms is spoken to or spoken of in supplications or rituals." (Source: Frederick W. Hodge, Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, 1912).

Village residents claim Wauconda was a young Native American chief who is buried on the south shore of Bangs Lake. There is no evidence of such a person. The town's first non-native settler, Justus Bangs, is reported to have selected the name from a character in a book he was reading.

Waukegan large letter postcard, Curt Teich Company, 1946. 6BH1342.

The largest community with a Native American appellation is Waukegan. The city of 87,000 was once known as Little Fort for its 17th century trading post (speculated to have been built by the French or American Indians). In 1849, when the community increased to about 2,500 inhabitants, it became clear that "little" no longer fit. Native American language experts, John Kinzie and Solomon Juneau, were consulted and the Algonquin word for trading post "waukegan" was selected.

The name that sounds the least Native American and causes the most confusion about its origin is Half Day. Though people believe the town was given the name in relation to its distance from Chicago (which it was not), the name actually honors Aptakisic, a Native American chief whose tribe lived near there from about 1830 to 1834. As discussed in a previous post on Aptakisic - Half Day, Half Day is named for Aptakisic, whose name can be translated to "sun at meridian" or "half day."

The name Aptakisic remains in use as Aptakisic Creek and Aptakisic Road. However, the town of Aptakisic–once located south of Prairie View–no longer exists.

Native American place names that are no longer in use include: Indian Grove, which referred to a grove of trees near today's Forest Lake in Ela Township (circa 1839). The name was also formerly associated with the area around Sylvan Lake. Indian Point referred to an area on the northwest side of Fox Lake, and Round Lake Heights was first known as Indian Hills subdivision.

The newest place name in Lake County is Manitou Creek. The name change was approved by the U.S. Board of Geographic Names in December 2021. According to the U.S. Department of the Interior, among the most used place names in the U.S. with a derogatory term is "squaw," which historically has been used as a slur for Native American women. 

Since the 1840s, the name Squaw Creek was used for a tributary of the Fox River (via Fox Lake) in Lake County's Grant Township near Ingleside. The Manitou (formerly Squaw) Creek Drainage District worked with local organizations, historians, individuals, and tribal nations with historic ties to the region, to find an appropriate name for the creek. After much consideration Manitou Creek was selected. "Manitou" is the spiritual and fundamental life force among Algonquin Native American groups, and honors the spirit of the waterway.

Native peoples from many different nations call this region home and continue to sustain their cultures, languages and traditions. 

James McKay of Waukegan

One of the most influential citizens in the development of early Waukegan was Scottish immigrant, James McKay, who lived there from 1841 to 1869. 

James McKay. City of Waukegan website.

McKay (1807-1887) constructed many of the town's first buildings and held office as Sheriff and Mayor of Waukegan.

James McKay, and his first wife Elizabeth Boyd, arrived in Little Fort (Waukegan) in May 1841. They had been living in Chicago from 1835 to 1841.

It can be difficult to piece together an individual's life and influence, especially when few records exist from this period. Fortunately for this research, James McKay was active in construction and politics, leaving a trail to follow.

In October 1841, the McKays built their dwelling house in the area of today's Jackson and Glen Rock Streets. The following spring, they purchased 160 acres of the heavily timbered land around their home. McKay subdivided much of his land into residential and business lots known as "McKay's Addition to Little Fort," and in 1844 "McKay's Second Addition to Little Fort."

In 1845, Elizabeth McKay contracted consumption (tuberculosis) and died at the Sauganash Hotel in Chicago. She was only 30 years old.

Sauganash Hotel, Chicago. History of Chicago, A.T. Andreas, 1884.

It is unclear why she was staying at the Sauganash, but the hotel was described by Chicago pioneer, Juliette Kinzie (1806-1870) as "a pretentious white two-story building, with bright blue wood shutters, the admiration of all the little circle at Wolf Point." Wolf Point is the location at the confluence of the North, South and Main Branches of the Chicago River, and is historically important in the development of early Chicago.

In 1847, McKay married Margaret Allison.

One of McKay's early projects was to build Little Fort's first hotel, the Exchange Hotel. In 1843, he built the McKay Tavern on Washington Street, and leased it to another party to manage. In the 1850s, he built and owned the Vollar House Hotel, later known as the Transit House, at the northwest corner of Sheridan Road and Water Street.

The McKay Bridge was also built in the 1850s. The bridge was either named for him because he had it built or because he had so much land in the vicinity. The bridge was constructed over the Waukegan River ravine at Washington and Glen Rock Streets. At the time, Washington Street did not extend west of the bridge, and Glen Rock extended diagonally to Libertyville.

McKay's Bridge, Washington Street, looking east. Image circa 1870. Dunn Museum 94.14.97

McKay's political career included serving as sheriff from 1842-1847, and mayor from 1863-1865. In 1845, he was elected as president of the Little Fort Reading Room and Library Associates. He was also a founding member of the Waukegan Horticultural Society (along with nurseryman Robert Douglas), which evolved into the Lake County Fair Association.

There are two letters in the museum's Horace Butler Collection related to McKay and politics. In 1844, McKay wrote a letter to Horace Butler (1814-1861) in Libertyville opposing the nomination of Daniel Dickinson to public office. Butler lived in Libertyville, was a lawyer, justice of the peace, and from 1844 to 1846 a member of the Illinois State Legislature.

James McKay's letter of April 1844 to Horace Butler of Libertyville. Dunn Museum 92.25.3

The letter reads:

Littlefort 25th April 1844

Friend Butler,

There is a hellish Plan on foot here, among the Clique, and Patterson [Arthur Patterson] is the fool to accomplish the object, he has this day put up the notices to take the assessment for Dickinson [Daniel O. Dickinson] commencing in the month of May in the Irish Precincts and goes on slowly to the tenth of July among the friends in Bristol & Mill Creek.

It was remarked to me and I saw you that Sheepard is to run for the Legislature. If Patterson can be bought on your part it will stop this draft.

Be sure to write Wentworth not to change our P.O. and if no one else will give Dickinson hell I will in the fall.

Yours in haste,

J. M.

Bristol and Mill Creek were two of ten voting precincts located in Antioch and Millburn respectively. The "Wentworth" mentioned in the letter is assuredly "Long" John Wentworth (1815–1888), the editor of the Chicago Democrat, two-term mayor of Chicago, and a six-term member of the United States House of Representatives.

In June 1844, Butler received a letter concerning James McKay from John O'Mealy, written on behalf of his Irish friends in Little Fort:

They are very much dissatisfied with the nomination of James McKay and they are fully determined to give every opposition to his election that they possibly can give... Neither time nor money will be spared to defeat McKay in his election.

The letter has a decided anti-McKay tone, but the crux of the upset was that the Irish immigrants felt their opinion was being ignored, since Benjamin Marks was their candidate of choice. However, O'Mealy writes in the last paragraph (of the two-page letter):

For my own part I never had reason to be dissatisfied with him [McKay] as a public officer nor as a private individual and would vote for him in preference to any other person that could be brought forward were it not for Mr. Marks being brought forward by so many of my Countrymen.

In 1854, there was much political upheaval over Stephen A. Douglas's Kansas-Nebraska Act in which men of the new territory could vote on the slavery question for themselves. James McKay along with Dr. David Cory, Henry Blodgett and 500-600 of Waukegan's citizens consisting of Whigs, Democrats and Free Soilers, met on the public square and burned an effigy bearing the initials S.A.D., and calling Douglas a traitor.

"Forcing Slavery Down the Throat of a Freesoiler," by John L. Magee, 1854. 

This 1854 cartoon (above) depicts a giant Freesoiler being held down by James Buchanan and Lewis Cass standing on the Democratic platform. The Free Soil party opposed the expansion of slavery.

The Waukegan men's resolution printed in the Chicago Tribune read in part: "Resolved. That Stephen A. Douglas and his little band of hangers-on and selected bullies, will please understand that the people of Illinois have learned to estimate men by their intellectual and moral virtues, and that the day is past when those really small can be bloated into Giants solely by the aid of political machinery and bad Whisky."

These documents only begin to tell the story of James McKay in Lake County, but by all accounts, he was respected and admired. There was even a schooner built in Waukegan and named "The James McKay" in 1848. The schooner sailed Lake Michigan until November 4, 1856, when it foundered in a gale at Chicago's harbor.

In 1869, McKay sold his Waukegan land and retired to Chicago with Margaret. When he passed away in 1887, his estate was valued at $50,000.

Special thanks to Al Westerman for his research on McKay in the Lake County Recorder of Deeds office.

- Diana Dretske, Curator ddretske@lcfpd.org