Note 9 — ORIGIN OF THE WORD CHICAGO[9]
Reading edition
Schoolcraft gives the origin of the word Chicago, as follows:
Chi-cag The animal of the leek or wild onion.
Chi-cag-o-wunz The wild leek or pole-cat plant.
Chi-ca-go Place of the wild leek.
It would really seem, from the myths and the origin of the word, as given above, that the name originated from the great amount of skunk weed on the marshes now covered by the city.