THE SHAWNEE BROTHERS
—The Prophet as an Indian Priest and Tecumseh as a political organizer—The episode of the eclipse of 1806—Tecumseh's personal appearance described.
The confederacy of Tecumseh was established upon a priesthood. Let us regard the priest. He was a character remarkable enough to invite the attention of all the leading men of that day, including Jefferson. He was subtle and crafty enough to delude Harrison into the belief that he might be a friend instead of a foe.
The account related by Simon Kenton, and vouched for by John Johnston and Anthony Shane, is that Tecumseh, Laulewasikaw, the Prophet, and a third brother, Kumskaukau, were triplets; that Tecumseh was the youngest or last born of the three; that "this event so extraordinary among the Indian tribes, with whom a double birth is quite uncommon, struck the mind of the people as supernatural, and marked him and his brothers with the prestige of future greatness—that the Great Spirit would direct them to the achievement of something great." The date of this extraordinary event is given by most authors as 1768, making Tecumseh and the Prophet some five years the seniors of General Harrison. "They were born in a cabin or hut, constructed of round saplings chinked with sticks and clay, near the mouth of Stillwater, on the upper part of its junction with the Great Miami, then a pleasant plateau of land, with a field of corn not subject to overflow."
Of the early life of the Prophet not much is known. "According to one account he was noted in his earlier years for stupidity and intoxication; but one day, while lighting his pipe in his cabin, he fell back apparently lifeless and remained in that condition until his friends had assembled for the funeral, when he revived from his trance, quieted their alarm, and announced that he had been conducted to the spirit world." As an orator, he is said to have been even more powerful than Tecumseh himself, and his great influence in after years among the various tribes would seem to bear that statement out. However, he was boastful, arrogant, at times cruel, and never enjoyed the reputation for honesty and integrity that his more distinguished brother did. In personal appearance he was not prepossessing. He had lost one eye, "which defect he concealed by wearing a dark veil or handkerchief over the disfigured organ." It has been related that he was dominated to some extent by his wife, who was regarded by the squaws at the Prophet's Town as a queen.
Whole nations are at times moved with a sort of religious fervor or frenzy which extends to all ranks and stations. During these periods strange mental phenomena are at times apparent, great social and political movements are inaugurated, and the whole complexion of affairs seems to undergo a rapid and sometimes radical change. Such a movement occurred among the Indian tribes of Ohio and those along the Wabash about the beginning of the year 1806. At this time a part of the scattered and broken remnants of the Shawnee tribe had been gathered together under the Prophet and Tecumseh at Greenville, Ohio. In November of the year before the Prophet had "assembled a considerable number of Shawnees, Wyandots, Ottawas and Senecas, at Wapakoneta, on the Auglaize river, when he unfolded to them the new character with which he was clothed, and made his first public effort in that career of religious imposition, which in a few years was felt by the remote tribes of the upper lakes, and on the broad plains which stretched beyond the Mississippi." The appearance of the Prophet was not only highly dramatic but extremely well-timed. The savage mind was filled with gloomy forebodings. The ravages of "fire-water," the intermixture of the races, the trespassing of the white settlers on the Indian domain, and the rapid disappearance of many of the old hunting grounds, all betokened a sad destiny for the red man. Naturally superstitious, he was prepared for the advent of some divine agency to help him in his distress. No one understood this better than the Prophet. He may have been the dupe of his own imposture, but impostors are generally formidable. He was no longer Laulewasikaw, but Tenskwatawa, "The Open Door." "He affected great sanctity; did not engage in the secular duties of war or hunting; was seldom in public; devoted most of his time to fasting, the interpretation of dreams, and offering sacrifices to spiritual powers; pretended to see into futurity and to foretell events, and announced himself to be the mouth-piece of God."
The first assemblage at Wapakoneta, was later followed by a series of pilgrimages to Greenville, which shortly spread alarm among the white settlers. Hundreds of savages flocked around the new seer from the rivers and lakes of the northwest and even from beyond the Mississippi. In May of 1807 great numbers passed and re-passed through Fort Wayne. In a letter of date August 20th, 1807, from William Wells, the United States Indian agent at the last named place, to Governor Harrison at Vincennes, Wells relates that the lake Indians from the vicinity of Mackinac are flocking to Greenville; that the Prophet is instilling the doctrine that in a few years the Great Spirit will destroy every white man in America, and that the inhabitants of Detroit are fortifying themselves against attack. To all these savage gatherings the Prophet preached the new propaganda. He denounced drunkenness, and said that he had gone up into the clouds and had seen the abode of the Devil; that there he saw all the drunkards and that flames of fire continually issued from their mouths, and that all who used liquor in this world would suffer eternal torment in the next; he advocated a return to pristine habits and customs, counseling the tribes "to throw away their flints and steels, and resort to their original mode of obtaining fire by percussion. He denounced the woolen stuffs as not equal to skins for clothing; he commended the use of the bow and arrow. As to inter-marriage between the races, all this was prohibited. The two races were distinct and must remain so. Neither could there be any separate or individual ownership of any of the Indian lands; these were the common heritage of all. The weak, aged and infirm were to be cherished and protected; parental authority was to be obeyed. In conclusion, he never failed to proclaim that the Great Spirit had gifted him with the divine power to 'cure all diseases and to arrest the hand of death, in sickness, or on the battlefield'."
The happening of these events soon attracted the attention of the British agents at Malden, just below Detroit, and on the Canadian side. McKee was there and Matthew Elliott. The old hatred of all things American still burned in their bosoms. "England and France," says Ridpath, "were now engaged in deadly war. The British authorities struck blow after blow against the trade between France and foreign nations; and Napoleon retaliated. The plan adopted by the two powers was, as already narrated, to blockade each others' ports, either with paper proclamations or with men-of-war. By such means the commerce of the United States was greatly injured. Great Britain next set up her peculiar claim of citizenship, that whosoever is born in England remains through life the subject of England. English cruisers were authorized to search American vessels for persons suspected of being British subjects, and those who were taken were impressed as seamen in the English navy. On the twenty-second of June, 1807, the frigate Chesapeake was hailed near Fortress Monroe by a British man-of-war called the Leopard. British officers came on board and demanded to search the vessel for deserters. The demand was refused and the ship cleared for action. But before the guns could be charged the Leopard poured in a destructive fire, and compelled a surrender. Four men were taken from the captured ship, three of whom proved to be American citizens. Great Britain disavowed this outrage and promised reparation; but the promise was never fulfilled."
In the event of a renewal of hostilities between the United States and Great Britain, it would evidently be the mission of McKee and Elliott to brighten the bond of friendship between the Indian tribes and the king; re-establish, so far as possible, the old savage confederacy, and use it both as a barrier against any attempted invasion of Canada, and as a weapon of offense against the western states and settlements. The Shawnees were wholly in the interest of the British. The Potawatomi, Ottawas and Chippewas who resided in the neighborhood of Detroit were, as Harrison says, "the most perfidious of their race," and Wells reported to Harrison, that in case of war, the Indian tribes would be against the United States. In a letter of July eleventh, 1807, Harrison wrote to the Department of War that a respectable trader from Detroit had informed him "that McKee, the British Indian agent, was lately seen to pass up the Miami of the Lake to Greenville where the Prophet resided, and where there has been a considerable collection of Indians for many weeks." The frontiers were generally alarmed, and in September the Governor dispatched the interpreter, John Conner, with a talk to the Shawnees requiring the immediate removal of the "impostor" from the territory, and the dispersion of the warriors he had collected about him. "The British," he writes, "could not have adopted a better plan to effect their purpose of alienating from our government the affections of the Indians than employing this vile instrument. It manifests at once their inveterate rancour against us and their perfect acquaintance with the Indian character."
But to return to the Prophet. His fame, bruited far and wide, soon aroused the jealousy of many of the neighboring chiefs and medicine men. They saw their power dwindling away and their authority diminishing. They took steps to check the advancing tide of fanaticism, but were at once adroitly met by the introduction of an inquisition into witchcraft, which had been almost universally believed in by the tribes, but against which the Prophet now hurled the most direful anathemas. He declared that anyone who dealt in magic or "medicine juggleries" should never taste of future happiness, and must be instantly put to death. His deluded and awe-struck followers promptly began a systematic searching out and persecution of "witches," and all under his personal direction. The finger of the seer often pointed at a prominent warrior or chieftain, or some member of their household. The Prophet's mere denunciation was proof enough. The victim went to the torture of death by fire, or some other fate equally revolting. Among the Delawares, especially, the most shocking cruelty ensued, and finally these things came to the ears of the Governor at Vincennes. He immediately sent a "speech" by special messenger to the headmen and chiefs of the Delaware tribe beseeching them to cast aside all fallacious doctrines, to denounce the Prophet and to drive him out of their midst. In the course of this "speech" he said: "Demand of him some proof at least, of his being the messenger of the Deity. If God has really employed him, He has doubtless authorized him to perform miracles that he may be known and received as a prophet. If he is really a prophet, ask of him to cause the sun to stand still, the moon to alter its course, the rivers to cease to flow, or the dead to rise from their graves."