Tecumseh and the Shawnee Prophet Tenskwatawa \"The

Tecumseh and the Shawnee Prophet

Tenskwatawa "The prophet" and Tecumseh

Tenskwatawa was born in 1778 at Old Piqua near present day Springfield, Ohio. His father was an important Shawnee chief. Lauliwasikau was one of eight children, and he protected his younger brother Tecumseh and acted as his protector. Lauliwaskiau would eventually be known as Tenskwatawa.

In 1783, at the treaty of Paris, promises of the British were broken and they made no effort to protect Indian lands in Ohio. Tribesmen had fought in this war but had no part in the treaty making. White frontiersmen started flocking to southern Ohio, only to be refused by the tribal leaders refusing to acknowledge the government's claims and oppose new settlements north of the river.

From 1784-1789 a few chiefs met with government officials and signed a series of questionable treaties taking away Indian control of lands in Southern and Eastern Ohio, but most of the tribesmen denounced the agreements and continued their raids on the farms and villages. The government then sent in armed expeditions but the tribesmen were too much for them and sent them back.

In August of 1794 Major General "Madman Anthony" Wayne's legion defeated the mutitribal forces in the Battle of the Fallen Timbers, which resulted in the Treaty of Greensville and the Indians gave up their claims to most of Ohio. The Indians then expanded into northern Indiana and northwestern Ohio but the red hunters were forced to compete with the growing number of whites who would cross over into Indian lands for wildlife. This denied the tribesmen of fresh meat and limited their ability to purchase needed commodities. The Indians relied on fur trading and after 1797 many warriors were hard pressed to provide for their families.

The American system was a hardship for the Indians, any tribesmen trespassing on white property were considered fair game. Fur trading peaceful Indians were robbed and murdered by American citizens and the frontier court systems would acquit the culprits of such crimes. When the Indians complained of such injustice their pleas were ignored. They considered the murdering of Indians in the highest degree meritorious.

Since colonial period smallpox, measles, and influenza had spread up and down the Ohio valley taking its toll on the natives, making the disease the biggest killer of Indians rather than the guns of the whites. Tribesmen were unable to adjust which led to alcohol and depression and they would barter their pelts for jugs of whiskey and fight among themselves.

By 1800 many Indians were willing to try the white mans ways. Late in 1801 a delegation of chiefs visited the East where Little Turtle and Five Medals asked government officials for assistance, and the government was delighted with the request. During the next decade the federal government and religious organizations sent farming equipment, funds, and even agriculture experts to the tribes of Ohio and Indiana. But it produced minimal results because of poor management by unscrupulous Indian agents who would sell Indian farm implements to white settlers.

The two chiefs wanted what was best for their people, but the majority of the tribesmen rejected such acculturation and went back to their old Indian ways dreaming of the golden age of their forefathers.

Tenskwatawa was mired in a life of alcohol and despair when, in 1805 he fell into a deep trance. Awakening, he began to preach a compelling message from the Great Spirit.

The ways of the white men, he proclaimed, were an evil that corrupted all they touched. He was told in the vision that he should reject all the white ways, including liquor, and return to the pure ways of the Indian. Following the vision, he became known at The Prophet or Tenskwatawa.

His prophecy was for total rejection of white culture, its clothing, technology, alcohol, and its religion. He also denounced the selling of land. No one really owned the land, he reminded his listeners, since by ancient tradition it belonged to everyone in common as a gift from the Great Spirit. Along with this bracing message, the Shawnee Prophet echoed another powerful refrain: the vision of an intertribal confederacy that would embrace all Indians everywhere. Tecumseh, his brother, was the man who came closest to making it happen.

During Little Turtle's War he led the Shawnee forces and he would not accept defeat although his signature is missing from the Greenville treaty. More importantly, Tecumseh thought of himself as an Indian first and a Shawnee second. Like his brother, he was inspired by a vision of Indian Unity, a single Indian nation embracing all of eastern North America, from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.

In 1808 the Prophet and his brother, Tecumseh, started a town on the Wabash River (in Indiana). They named the town Tippecanoe but it was more commonly known as Prophetstown. Many Indians came to live there to share the dream of one united Indian nation. Many settlers were concerned over what they saw as a mass Indian uprising forming on the western frontier. About this time Tecumseh's plan of forming a confederacy of the tribes of the Northwest, and attacking the white settlers, began to be apparent. The idea of a confederation of the Indian tribes in a vain attempt to check the progressive strides of civilization to the west was not original with Tecumseh. It had been nurtured as the favorite hope of Pontiac, Little Turtle and other leading spirits of the Indian race. Their object was the accomplishment of one purpose -- to stay the advance and spread of white settlements.

The Prophet visited Governor Harrison at Vincennes, where he remained a considerable length of time, his object being to converse with Harrison. In the course of these interviews The Prophet impressed the governor that he was honest in his intentions, but ere long the general came to regard him again as crafty, cunning and unreliable. He came to the conclusion that The Prophet and Tecumseh were plotting against the United States government, and in the event of a war with England they would exert their influence toward forming an alliance of the Indians.

In 1811, Tecumseh was away from Prophetstown and had warned his brother not to fight a battle with the whites while he was gone. The Prophet did not listen and ordered a surprise attack on William Henry Harrison's troops that were stationed nearby. Harrison's troops were prepared for the attack and easily defeated the Indians at the Battle of Tippecanoe. Prophetstown was left unguarded and the American troops burned it to the ground. July, 1810, Governor Harrison sent a letter to The Prophet at Tippecanoe, the object of which was to point out the folly of his conduct and give him assurance of the friendly intentions of the United States government.