Past Shawnee Villages

Past Shawnee Villages. . , In the 1700s, Shawnees of the Mekoche division established two villages on the land you are visiting. One, located on the north side of the stream, was called Moluntha’s Town named for the Mekoche chief who lived there. The second, on the south side of the stream, was named Mekoche for the tribal division., The stream, now called Mac-O-Chee, was straightened in 1910 to extend cropland. A hundred years later, the Ohio Division of Wildlife worked with Piatt Castle Mac-A-Cheek to return the waterway to its natural winding state resulting in reduced flooding and a healthier habitat., This map of Logan County was produced in 2025 by the Ohio Division of Natural Areas and Preserves. It offers a view of the vegetation growing in 1800 and Indigenous villages, known by the early white settlers as the Upper Mad River towns. Not all towns depicted on this map existed at the same time., A village called Mekoche appears on old and new maps and markers with various English spellings including: Mackachack, Maccacheek, Mackacheck, Maykujay, Mac-a-cheek, Mekoche, Mac-o-chee, Mequashake, Maquachake, and Maycockey. We assume non-Shawnee speakers heard the word spoken and selected a spelling based on their language and dialect., Shawnees in the 18th century lived in various forms of housing including wikiwas and log homes. Longer, rectangular buildings were used as council houses. Within the villages and surrounding area, individuals hunted, farmed, fished, trapped, cooked, made clothing, pottery, played games, and participated in ceremonies. Villages were structured by kinship ties and organized into clans. They measured wealth with gifts given to them and in social capital earned through diplomacy.