PROPHET'S TOWN
--_The capital of the Shawnee Confederacy in the heart of the Miami
country._
Before entering upon the final details of the struggle between Harrison
and Tecumseh, it may not be uninteresting to recur to a point of time
just before the Treaty of Fort Wayne, when the two Indian leaders
removed from the neighborhood of the white settlements at Greenville,
Ohio, and established the Prophet's Town on the Wabash river in the
month of June, 1808. This was to be the spot from whence should emanate
all those brilliant schemes of the brothers to merge the broken tribes
into a confederacy; to oppose the further advance of the white settlers,
and with the aid of the British power in Canada, to drive them back
beyond the waters of the Ohio. It was, as General Richard P. DeHart has
aptly remarked, "the seat of Indian diplomacy and strategy for many
years."
In leading their followers to this new field, the brothers were guided
by certain lines of policy which were both remarkable in their
conception, and signal for their farsightedness. The rendezvous at
Greenville had been marked by intense enthusiasm, hundreds of red men
flocking thither to imbibe the new faith and to commune with the
Prophet; so many in fact, that Governor Harrison had ordered them to be
supplied from the public stores at Fort Wayne in order to avert trouble.
But it was evident to the new leaders that all this congregating did not
turn aside starvation; that warriors could not be held together who were
hungry and who lacked corn; that the proximity of white traders was
conducive to drunkenness; that if back of outward appearances any
warlike exercises were to be indulged, or the emissaries and arms of the
British were to be received, that these things would require secrecy and
seclusion until the plot was ripe; that some strategic position must be
secured on one of the great waterways of the interior, within quick
striking distance of the settlements and easily accessible to the
British posts.
Such a spot was the site of the old French and Indian trading post on
the right bank of the Wabash and about ten miles above the present city
of Lafayette. To the west about one and one-quarter miles is the marble
shaft of the Battleground, and going from thence east across the fields
and open woodlands you come to the fringe of woods that still lines the
river. You have walked over the old Indian corn fields and are now
standing on the exact location of the old Prophets's Town. The scene is
one of great beauty even at this day, when the forest has been despoiled
and nature ravished of her choicest charms. Here, the river extends in
an almost unbroken line for three or four miles, bordered by sycamores
and maples, and with a wealth of clinging vines, crab-apple blossoms and
blooming flowers on either bank. The old trading post of Petit Piconne
was located on a series of high cliffs, crowned with huge forest trees,
and commanding the river through vistas of foliage. The face of these
cliffs is frequently broken by sharp ravines, that extend on back among
the hills with many devious windings. At the foot of the steep slopes,
extends a long, narrow tableland of forest bordering directly upon the
river; this is interspersed with springs of fresh water that burst from
the hillsides. On the cliffs stood the camps and cabins of the warriors
and their followers; below, and on the tableland and next to the water,
the horses were tethered, and canoes were drawn up out of the river.
Thither the Prophet and his brother now turned their eyes. The whole
upper valley, including the basins of the Tippecanoe and the Wildcat,
was the rightful possession of the Miamis and the Weas, but the brothers
now secured a pretended right or license from the Kickapoos and the
Potawatomi to establish a camp. The Miamis of the north, and the
Delawares of the south, were alike alarmed. The Delawares in particular
had been the friends of the white people and adherents of the Governor.
They divined, and divined truly, that the Prophet's plans ultimately
involved mischief. To avoid a possible war they sent a deputation of
chiefs to the Prophet, who refused to see them, but deputed Tecumseh to
answer their remonstrances. On this mission he was entirely successful.
By threats and persuasion he turned them back, although they had
received strict instructions from their tribe to oppose a new
settlement. On a visit shortly afterwards by John Conner, interpreter
for the Delawares, on a search for stolen horses, he found the Prophet
safely ensconced in his chosen position, with a following of thirty or
forty Shawnees, and about ninety others, consisting of Potawatomi,
Chippewas, Ottawas and Winnebagoes.
The location selected was certainly ideal. "By a short portage the
Indians could go by canoe to Lake Erie or Lake Michigan, or by the
Wabash reach all the vast system of watercourses to the north and west.
It was only twenty-four hours' journey by canoe, at a favorable stage of
water, down stream to Vincennes, the capital of the white man's
territory;" the British post at Malden was only a few days distant. As
to the Indian tribes, the Prophet's Town was almost centrally located in
the Miami confederacy; to the north as far as the post of Chicago and
Lake Michigan extended the realm of the Potawatomi; on the Vermilion
below, and to the west of the main stream, lay the villages of the
Kickapoos, whose hardy warriors, second only to the Wyandots, had
accepted the new faith; the Sacs and Foxes, the Winnebagoes, Ottawas,
Chippewas and Wyandots, were all within easy reach, and secret embassies
and negotiations might be carried on without much fear of detection.
The brothers now resolved to pursue the following course--to wean their
followers entirely away from the use of whiskey, which was fast
destroying their military efficiency; to teach them, if possible, the
ways of labor, so that they might raise corn and other products of the
earth, and thus supply their magazines against a time of war; to dupe
the Governor into the belief that their mission was one of peace, and
undertaken solely for the moral uplift and betterment of the tribes--in
the meantime, by the constant practice of religious ceremonies and
rites, to work on the superstition of the warriors; win them, if need
be, from the chieftains who might counsel peace, and by a series of
warlike sports and exercises, hold together the young bucks and train
them for the inevitable conflict between the races.
What strange mysticism did the Prophet practice to make the Indians of
the Wabash "abandon whiskey, discard textile clothing, return to skins,
throw away their witch-bags, kill their dogs, and abandon the white
man's ways, even to giving up flint and steel for making fires?" That he
had gained fame and ascendency among the neighboring tribes since the
episode of the eclipse in 1806, is testified to by the fact that when
Richard McNemar, the Shaker, visited him in 1807, at Greenville, Ohio,
he found a temple of worship one hundred fifty feet in length,
surrounded by wigwams and cottages, and the Indians then told McNemar
that they all believed implicitly in the Prophet and that he could
"dream to God." The Prophet had at that time also gone so far as to
institute the confessional, and all sinful disclosures were made to
himself and four accompanying chiefs. The question was asked: "Do they
confess all the bad things they ever did?" Answer: "All from seven years
old. And cry and tremble when they come to confess." A sort of nature or
sun worship had already been introduced. McNemar thus describes a
salutation to the lord of the day: "Next morning, as soon as it was day,
one of their speakers mounted a log, near the southeast corner of the
village, and began the morning service with a loud voice, in
thanksgiving to the Great Spirit. He continued his address for near an
hour. The people were all in their tents, some at the distance of
fifteen or twenty rods; yet they could all distinctly hear, and gave a
solemn and loud assent, which sounded from tent to tent, at every pause.
While we stood in his view, at the end of the meeting house, on rising
ground, from which we had a prospect of the surrounding wigwams, and the
vast open plain or prairie, to the south and east, and which looked over
the big fort, toward the north, for the distance of two miles, we felt
as if we were among the tribes of Israel, on their march to Canaan."
By weird incantations, symbolic ceremonies, and practice of the black
art, the Prophet had gone far. He was now regarded as invulnerable, and
his person sacred. But that which gave point to his oracles, and
authority to his imposture, was his Shawnee hatred of the pale face. To
incite their growing jealousy and malice, he told his dupes, that the
white man had poisoned all their land, and prevented it from producing
such things as they found necessary to their subsistence. The growing
scarcity of game, the disappearance of the deer and buffalo before the
white settlements, were indisputable proofs of his assertions. Says
Harrison: "The game which was formerly so abundant, is now so scarce as
barely to afford subsistence to the most active hunters. The greater
part of each tribe are half the year in a state of starvation, and
astonishing as it may seem, these remote savages have felt their full
share of the misfortunes which the troubles in Europe have brought upon
the greater part of the world. The exclusion of the English from the
continent of Europe, where they were accustomed to dispose of the
greater part of the peltries imported from Canada, has reduced the price
of those articles almost to nothing; the Indians can scarcely procure
for them the necessary ammunition, and they are often induced to forego
the purchase of this necessary article to gratify their passion for
whiskey." All these evils were attributed by the Prophet to the
extension of the American settlements. To drive back these invaders who
polluted the soil and desecrated the graves of their fathers--what more
was needed to incite the savage warriors to a crusade of blood and
extermination? About this time it was noticed that the Potawatomi of the
prairies, who were under the influence of the Prophet, were frequently
holding religious exercises, but that these exercises were always
concluded with "warlike sports, shooting with bows, throwing the
tomahawk, and wielding the war-club."
In the meantime, the relation of these religious ceremonies at the
Prophet's Town and their seemingly good effect upon the red man,
completely disarmed the Governor for the time being. He now entertained
the idea that the great Indian leader might be "made a useful instrument
in effecting a radical and salutary change in the manners and habits of
the Indians." To stop the use of ardent spirits and to encourage the
cultivation of corn, were two important steps, as the Governor thought.
Events which succeeded but added to Harrison's deception. In June, 1808,
messengers appeared at Vincennes, and one of them stated that he had
listened to the Prophet for upwards of three years, and had never heard
anything but good advice. "He tells us we must pray to the Great Spirit
who made the world and everything in it for our use. He tells us that no
man could make the plants, the trees, and the animals, but they must be
made by the Great Spirit, to whom we ought to pray, and obey in all
things. He tells us not to lie, to steal, or to drink whiskey; and not
to go to war, but to live in peace with all mankind. He tells us also to
work and to make corn."
In August of the same year, the crafty Prophet himself appeared and
remained at Vincennes for more than two weeks. The Governor was
surprised at the great address and ease with which he handled his
followers, and had the pleasure of listening to a speech, in which the
Prophet professed the most pacific intentions, constantly haranguing his
retinue upon the evils of war and liquor, and holding out to them the
advantages of temperance and peace. It seems that the Governor even made
a few personal experiments to determine whether the Indians were in
earnest about their pretensions, but could induce none of them to touch
fire-water. The interview closed to the entire satisfaction of the
Governor, the Prophet promising to keep him fully informed as to
anything that might be inimical to the settlements, and receiving in
return many presents from the Governor in the way of implements of
husbandry, arms, powder and other things which the Indians claimed that
they were in sore need of. On the first of September, 1808, in a
communication to Henry Dearborn, Secretary of War, the Governor wrote as
follows: "The celebrated Shawnee Prophet has just left me after a visit
of more than two weeks. He is rather possessed of considerable talents,
and the art and address with which he manages the Indians is really
astonishing. I was not able to ascertain whether he is as I at first
supposed, a tool of the British or not. His denial of being under any
such influence was strong and apparently candid. He says that his sole
purpose is to reclaim the Indians from the bad habits they have
contracted, and to cause them to live in peace and friendship with all
mankind, and declares that he is particularly instructed to that effect
by the Great Spirit. He frequently harangued his followers in my
presence, and the evils attendant upon war and the use of ardent spirits
was his constant theme. I cannot say how successful he may be in
persuading them to lay aside their passion for war, but the experiment
made to determine whether their refusal to drink whiskey proceeded from
principle, or was only empty profession, established the former beyond
all doubt. Upon the whole, Sir, I am inclined to think the influence
which the Prophet has acquired will prove rather advantageous than
otherwise to the United States."
How vain this trust! Scarcely had the Prophet returned to his town,
before he was entertaining an emissary and spy of the British
government, who urged war on the United States. In the following spring
of 1809, the Chippewas, Ottawas and Potawatomi were being urged by the
Prophet to take up arms against the inhabitants of Vincennes, and to
destroy the settlers along the Ohio, as far up as Cincinnati. Reports of
these proceedings were confirmed by Michael Brouillette, an Indian
trader, and by Touissant Dubois, a confidential agent of the Governor.
Harrison probably averted an Indian attack, by promptly organizing two
additional companies of militia and throwing them into the vicinity of
Fort Knox, to guard the approaches to the capital by land and water. The
Indians, however, seeing this prompt action, deserted the Prophet and
returned to their homes. The Governor was not fooled a second time. The
Prophet again visited him in the summer of 1809, and made the same old
pretensions of peace. But the Governor forced him to admit that he had
entertained the British the fall before, and that he had been invited,
as he said, to join a league of the Sacs and Foxes against the whites in
the early spring, and he could make no satisfactory explanation as to
why he had not imparted these facts to the government, when he had been
solemnly enjoined so to do. From this time on, the Prophet was regarded
with a just suspicion, and Harrison diligently regarded every movement
of the new faith.