The War of 1812 has been called the "forgotten war," and it's place in American history is ongoing changes as its bicentennial observation gets underway. The War of 1812 may be thought of as three different wars: the naval war against the British (John Paul Jones and the USS Constitution--"Old Ironsides"); the resistance to the war demonstrated in New England (the abortive Hartford Convention, which discussed secession 50 years before the southern slave states temporarily formed the Confederate States); and lastly, but more importantly to us in the Midwest, the war in the interior of the country fought between whites and Native Americans and their British allies. As a result of the outcome of the War of 1812, the Native American confederacy that had been building since the establishment of settlement at Greenville of the Shawnee Prophet Tenskwatawa disintegrated, and active opposition to further white settlement in the Great Lakes region vanished with it.
That opposition was centered on two Shawnee men, brothers we know as Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa. For many years, it was thought by white scholars that Tecumseh was the leader of this movement--Tecumseh was acknowledged by most as a brilliant warrior and leader of men in battle. Tenskwatawa, the Shawnee Prophet, on the other hand, was depicted by whites as cunning, underhanded usurper, who in his drive to take over Tecumseh's movement undercut his brother's efforts with an ill-fated attack on American militia forces near the confluence of the Tippecanoe and Wabash Rivers in November 1811--the opening shots of the War of 1812 in the Great Lakes region. During the last thirty years or so, however, this interpretation has undergone extensive revision, beginning with the biography of Tenskwatawa by
R. David Edmonds, and most recently with the account of the relationship between William Henry Harrison and Tenskwatawa by
Adam Jortner. The reasons for this reinterpretation are various, but are largely due to the re-assessment of the sources that scholars have long relied upon to shape this story.
Before we tackle the reinterpretation, however, we need to lay out the basic facts as best we can. In the Great Lakes region--or the
pays d'en haut as French
voyageurs called it--was a region in a great deal of flux because of the changes caused by white contact with various native peoples. Those closest to the coast were effected earliest, but eventually most native peoples sought contact with Europeans for the trade goods they were willing to exchange for animal pelts--especially beaver. This desire for trade goods increased conflicts between native peoples; some of the trade goods obtained, in particular firearms, made this conflict more deadly. To escape the violence, many native peoples moved to the interior of the country--where they had to learn to co-exist with the native peoples already living there.
Among the native peoples already living in the Great Lakes regions were the Shawnee people. The Shawnee, in fact, had recently moved back into what whites were now calling the Ohio country--the had fled the earlier carnage caused by the attack of the Iroquois Confederacy on the Wendot (later known as the Hurons and Wyandottes) people during an earlier conflict. Many scholars believe that Shawnee to be the descendants of the so-called Fort Ancient peoples, responsible for the construction of many of the mound structures around Ohio. Once the group returned to Ohio, many proved reluctant to move again; the Shawnee attempted to make strategic allies with whites that would allow them to continue to control the land on which they lived; the Shawnee allied with the British in the French and Indian War, for example--but were among the earliest allies of the Ottawa chief Pontiac in his attempt to confederate all native groups into a single force to remove white settler from what they considered their land.
We believe that in 1768, Tecumseh was born in Old Piqua, on the Mad River, into a large family headed by
Puckshinwa and Methotaske. By 1774, the ongoing conflict claimed the life of Puckshinwa at the Battle of Point Pleasant; the following spring, Methotase gave birth to the last of their children from the relationship--triplets, including one called Lalawethicka (which translates into "the Rattle"). By 1780, the boy's mother had abandoned her children to the care of her eldest daughter, and moved west to escape the constant threat of violence. After abandoning the battlefield in his first conflict in 1782, Tecumseh vowed such an occurrence would never happen again. Tecumseh later took part in the native defeats of American army forces under the command of both of both Josiah Harmar and Arthur St. Clair; Tecumseh and Lalawethicka were both also present at the defeat of native forces at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. Tecumseh refused to sign the Treaty of Greenville, however, and moved his small band, including his brother, to a settlement near present-day Anderson, Indiana,
Here the group foundered--especially Lalawethicka, who seems to have attempted to drown his troubles in alcohol. Just after one such bout, Lalawethicka became unconscious while attempting to light his pipe in the fire; tradition has it that he had to in fact be lifted out of the fire by his family. Lalawethicka remained unconscious for an extended period of time--long enough, in fact to convince his family that he had passed away. As they were preparing his body for burial, however, he awakened with an astonishing tale of passing into a realm beyond Earth, and having a conversation with the Great Spirit, who told him that all native peoples had to reform their ways or suffer an excruciating eternal damnation.
Tenskwatawa (as Lalawethicka began calling himself--the name means "the Open Door") called for native peoples to give up all European trade goods, especially alcohol, and return to "traditional ways of life." He soon claimed that the Great Spirit had informed him that he should establish a settlement at Greenville, Ohio to proselytize to other native peoples. Greenville was, of course, the site of the treaty signing took place, and despite denials seems to have been an act to provoke a response from both the Ohio state government and the federal government, The move to Greenville coincided with Willliam Henry Harrison's negotiation of the Treaty of Fort Wayne in 1805. Harrison saw this as a means to consolidate his political position in the Indiana Territory (soon to be a state, Harrison hoped). Native peoples saw the treaty in an entirely different light, of course, and sought leaders who promised to put a stop to the cessation of land to whites--just what Tenskwatawa was advocating in Greenville. Soon, many whites in Ohio were in a panic over the number of Native peoples going to Greenville, and were attempting to persuade both the federal government and the state of Ohio to intervene. Neither governmental body was willing to do so, however, because of the cost involved. Not all whites were convinced that Tenskwatawa was up to some nefarious plan, either; visiting Shakers came away convinced that Greenville had been transformed into a "holy place."
The majority of whites were made uncomfortable by the large numbers of native peoples traveling to Greenville, and continued to pressure the government of Ohio to act. Fortunately, it was about this time that the Great Spirit informed Tenskwatawa that his village should be moved to a new place--on the Tippecanoe River, near where it empties into the Wabash. This moved Tenskwatawa closer to many of his native allies--but also closer to the strongest voice calling for the disbandment of the Prophet's village, William Henry Harrison. The establishment of this new settlement, known to whites as Prophetstown, was a direct challenge to Harrison's plans for the territory--and a threat to his economic well-being, as well, since he had invested a considerable sum in purchasing much of the land his treaty negotiations had "acquired" from Native Americans. It was these conflicts that led to the War of 1812 in the Great Lakes region.
