The Shawnee Prophet: the Demise of a Culture
Posted: Saturday, December 03, 2011
by Jack H. Schick
“The Prophet,” Tenskwatawa (1775-November, 1836), was a religious and political leader of the Shawnee Native American tribe. The brother of war chief Tecumseh, his original name was Lalawethika, which means ‘He Makes a Loud Noise,’ or ‘The Noise Maker.’ In 1805, after receiving visions from Gitche Manitou, the Great Spirit or the Great Mystery, he began to preach to his people, denouncing Americans as children of the devil. He established a cult that promoted a return to original Indian customs. His brother took advantage of the religious fervor to organize and mobilize the tribes of the Midwest to fight against the United States. The ‘movement’ was the final flare-up of resistance to American westward expansion into the old Northwest and the Mississippi Valley.
In November, 1805, according to one account, Lalawetika was in a drunken stupor in his cabin. While attempting to light his pipe he fell back, apparently lifeless. He remained so for a long time and was thought to be dead. When his friends gathered for his funeral he, to their amazement, suddenly revived from his deep trance. He announced that he had been in the spirit world where he had received a revelation from the Master of Life.
Over the next few months Lalawetika experienced a series of religious visions that came to be known as 'the purification.' He rejected his old ways and began to publicly preach. At the ancient Shawnee capital of Wapakoneta, Lalawetika, only 30 years old and with no tribal significance or previous leadership experience, was able to gather his people and their allies around him because of his “ressurection,” visions and revelations.
He announced a mission the Great Spirit had given him. He said he was told that the white invaders from the east were “not my children, but children of the Great Serpent of evil.” He exhorted his people to return to their traditional ways and to foresake and resist all evils represented by Americans and the white culture. He said that the ‘firewater’ of the whites was poison and those who continued to use it would be tormented by fire after death. He instructed that the young must show respect and love for the old and sick. He insisted that all property must be common, according to the laws of their ancestors.
Lalawetika called for a total segregation of the races. He said that Indian women must stop wedding white men, that the two races were distinct and should remain so. The people must reject white man’s dress and wear only buckskin and traditional garb. They must discard white man’s tools of flint and steel and fire arms in favor of the ‘fire stick’ and the tomahawk. All white man's tools must be discarded and the tribes return to the methods the Master of Life had taught their ancestors.
Lalawetika told his people that when they had done what he said they would again receive divine favor and return to the happiness their fathers had known before the coming of the whites. Lalawetika also claimed that he had received the power to cure all diseases and to stop the hand of death from both sickness and on the battlefield. His mission, at the start, had no military objective. He did not call for increased resistance to the expansion of the United States or an attack against it. He called, simply, for a return to the traditional ways.
He then changed his name to Tenskwatawa, The Prophet. Much excitement followed the proclamation of his mission. A crusade began against the practice of witchcraft that had sprung up among the “medicine men” in response to the declining Native culture. Tenskwatawa, however, also directed this crusade against those who were opposed to his supernatural claims. To maintain his sacred character and diminsh doubts he continued to periodically have dreams and visions and to announce new revelations. He gained a large following and established a headquarters at what is now Greenville, Ohio.
The following summer (1806), The Prophet announced that as a sign of his true status, the Great Spirit would temporarily swallow the sun. By an unknown method, Tenskwatawa successfully predicted an eclipse. The event humiliated Territorial Governor William Henry Harrison who, in an effort to squelch the religious uprising had publicly called Tenskwatawa a fraud and liar.
The miracle was taken as proof of Tenskwatawa’s power my many tribes and resulted in an enthusiastic acceptance of him as a true prophet and messenger of the Master of Life. Emissaries were sent from tribes from as far away as the Seminole to learn of the new doctrines. Though local variations in rituals and beliefs emerged, there was a common idea that, within four years, there would be some great catastrophe that would spare only those who followed The Prophet.
Tenskwatawa and his followers moved west and established a large multi-tribal community at the juncture of the Wabash and Tippecanoe Rivers in present day Indiana. River junctures were, by tribal culture, thought to be places of great spiritual significance. The village was called Prophetstown by the whites and Tippecanoe by the Natives. Besides being the focus of the religious revival, the site was also the geographic center of the political and military alliance that was forming around the Prophet’s brother, Tecumseh.
The United States Government, which had acquired the Northwest, Ohio Country by the British in 1783, was concerned with the Indians’ religious revival. Governor Harrison confronted Tenskwatawa. In 1808, The Prophet told him:
"Father: It is three years since I first began with that system of religion which I now practice. The white people and some of the Indians were against me; but I had no other intention but to introduce among the Indians, those good principles of religion which the white people profess. I was spoken badly of by the white people, who reproached me with misleading the Indians; but I defy them to say I did anything amiss…The Great Spirit told me to tell the Indians that he made them, and made the world—that he had placed them on it to do good, and not evil. Father, I was told that you intend to hang me. When I heard this, I intended to remember it, and tell my father, when I went to see him, and relate to him the truth…."
Harrison did not hang Tenskwatawa. Prophetstown continued to grow as more and more disaffected young warriors from tribes in the region joined the movement. There is a debate among historians as to whether Tecumseh had become the primary leaded of the multi-tribal community by then. Tenskwatawa’s preachings became more militant and politically oriented. Tecumseh gained support from the British and began forming a confederation of the regional tribes in an effort to realize a vision he’d had since childhood of a united Indian nation that could resist Anglo-American expansion. By 1811, settlers and the U.S. Army had become very concerned over what was going on at Prophetstown.
In the autumn of 1811, as the Great Comet blazed overhead suggesting traumatic events to come, Tecumseh traveled south to try to build an even larger alliance of Native Americans. He instructed his brother to avoid all confrontation with whites while he was gone. Taking advantage of the war chief’s absence, on November 7, 1811, an American force commanded by William Henry Harrison surrounded Prophetstown. Foolishly, Tenskwatawa attacked the besiegers first with his smaller force. The Indians were soundly defeated. Many Indians were killed or wounded. The Prophet was stripped of his powers and Prophetstown was burned to the ground. The surviving Indians were scattered and, coupled with his failure to enlist the tribes of the South, Tecumseh’s hope for a broad Native confederation ended.
Tenskwatawa and Tecumseh sought British protection. On December 16, 1811, while the first steamboat was making it’s way from Pittsburgh to New Orleans, the frustrated Tecumseh angrily stomped his foot on the ground at Detroit, fulfilling a prophecy. The earth ruptured at New Madrid. Houses up and down the Mississippi Valley fell into ruins. Millions of trees were up rooted and, for a time, the mighty river ran backwards. But even this power, given to the great chiefs by the Master of Life, did not halt the demise of their culture. The Age of Iron was inevitably eclipsing the Age of Stone.
The two brothers participated in the defense of the British Canadian colonies during the War of 1812. Tenskwatawa was present at the Battle of the Thames in 1813. He fled with the British forces as he had so many times as the young Lalawetika. Tecumseh stood his ground and died there with his warriors.
For the next decade Tenskwatawa made unsuccessful efforts to regain his position of leadership among the tribes exiled in Canada. In 1825, he returned to the United States and led the Shawnee relocation to west of the Mississippi. They settled in the area of present day Kansas City. The fallen prophet died there in November of 1836. His grave was unmarked and its location is unknown.
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