BUSHNELL] NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 47 
the present Montgomery County, Alabama. Here they were seated 
when visited by Hawkins on December 19, 1796, when he wrote: 
“From, this bank arise several springs, particularly one, a large one, 
half a mile farther, the Uchee village, a remnant of those settled on 
the Chattahoochee, half a mile farther pass a Shawne village, they 
speak the language and retain the manners of their countrymen to 
the N. W. This town house differs from the Creek, it is an oblong 
square building, 8 feet pitch roofed on the common mode of cabin 
building, the sides and roof covered with bark of pine.”” (Hawkins, 
B., (2), p. 41.) 
An interesting question now arises in connection with the “town 
house” existing in this Shawnee village. Among the Algonquian 
tribes of the north, including, of course, the Shawnee, no record is 
preserved of any structure resembling the rotunda, or town house, 
similar to those which stood in the villages of the Cherokee or other 
southern tribes. Ceremonial lodges were erected by the Algonquians, 
and structures of several forms were built to serve as council houses, 
some being temporary shelters, others of a more permanent nature, 
but the ‘‘town house” like that known among the southern tribes was 
not used. The Shawnee, who, in 1796, were living on the banks of 
the Tallapoosa, had been among the Muskhogean tribes for several 
generations and must necessarily have adopted some of their cus- 
toms, one being the erection of a ‘‘town house” in their village. 
However, it differed in form and material from those of the neighbor- 
ing towns, being quadrilateral instead of round, and evidently coy- 
ered and roofed with bark without the usual wattlework protected 
by clay. This appears to have been an instance where a new cus- 
tom was adopted by the Algonquian from the Muskhogean, but the 
form, of the structure remained essentially Algonquian. 
At this time, the closing years of the eighteenth century, the 
greater part of the Shawnee were living in southern Ohio, But it 
is quite evident their villages were already assuming the appearance 
of the near-by settlements of the whites across the Ohio in Kentucky. 
A brief, though interesting, description of Old Chillicothe has been 
preserved, although the site of this town has not been determined, as 
several widely separated settlements bore the name. It may have 
stood on Paint Creek, in the present Ross County, the town of that 
name destroyed by the Kentuckians in 1787. . The account was pre- 
pared before 1785: 
‘“‘Old Chelicothe is built in form of a Kentucky station, that is, a 
parallelogram, or long square; and some of their houses are shingled. 
A long Council-house extends the whole length of the town, where 
the king and chiefs of the nation frequently meet, and consult of all 
matters of importance, whether of a civil or military nature.” (Fil- 
son, (1), p. 98.) 
