ON NOVEMBER 7, 1811, THE Shawnee prophet Tenskwatawa stood and chanted from a rock formation known today as Prophet’s Rock. He believed he was casting a protective spell that would turn the bullets of American soldiers into dust. Thus, Tenskwatawa was able to convince his warriors that no harm would come to them during what came to be called the Battle of Tippecanoe.
There was just one problem: The spell cast from atop Prophet’s Rock didn’t work, and dozens of Native Americans perished in the battle. Tecumseh, the prophet’s half-brother and Shawnee chief, had given strict instructions to Tenskwatawa not to attack the American forces while he was away on business. The prophet ignored Tecumseh’s instructions and attacked anyway.
In the early morning hours of November 7, 1811, Tenskwatawa climbed the bluffs near Burnett’s Creek until he found a large rock formation made of centuries-old, piled-up gravel mixed with limestone and iron. A large rock platform stuck out and gave clear vision of the battlefield a little over a mile away. There were hollowed-out, cave-like fetchers below in case the prophet needed to take cover from the battle.
The attack was launched from Prophet’s Rock, and the Native American warriors attacked the American forces led by William Henry Harrison. The skirmish didn’t last long. The estimated number of dead and injured on both sides of the battle has varied over the years. What hasn’t changed is the outcome. Tenskwatawa and his worriers were forced to withdraw from the battlefield and Prophet’s Rock, and eventually from the area entirely.
Tenskwatawa was a Native American religious and political leader of the Shawnee, known as the Prophet or the Shawnee Prophet. He was a younger brother of Tecumseh, a leader of the Shawnee.
Tecumseh was a Shawnee chief, warrior, diplomat, and orator who promoted resistance to the expansion of the United States onto Native American lands. He traveled widely, forming a Native American confederacy and promoting tribal unity. Tecumseh understood the different tribes of the Indian Nation could not stand against the insurgence of the white men unless they banded together under a common banner the way the eastern states did in forming the US Government to defeat the British.
In the War of 1812, Tecumseh joined his cause with the British, recruiting warriors and helping to captured Detroit in August 1812. The following year he led an unsuccessful campaign against Americans in Ohio and Indiana. When U.S. naval forces took control of Lake Erie in 1813, Tecumseh reluctantly retreated with the British into upper Canada, where American forces engaged them at the Battle of the Thames, on October 5, 1813, in which Tecumseh was killed. His death caused his confederacy to collapse; the lands he fought to defend were eventually ceded to the U.S. government. His legacy as one of the most celebrated Native American leaders in history grew in the years after his death, although the details of his life have often been obscured by mythology.
Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th state on December 11, 1816. Indiana means Land of the Indians. In reality Statehood meant the end of the Indian nations here. Most of the Indians had been pushed out by 1830. The Potawatomi
Trail of Death was the forced removal by militia in 1838 of some 859 members of the Potawatomi nation from
Indiana to reservation lands in what is now eastern Kansas. During the journey of approximately 660 miles (1,060 km) over 61 days, more than 40 persons died, most of them children.
British wool cloth flag said to have been given to Tecumseh (Shawnee, 1768-1813) by the British in 1812, National Museum of the American Indian, 23/730 (Photo by Roger A. Whiteside, NMAI)
