The Lenape and the Shawnee maintained close ties in Missouri. Both tribes had problems with the Osage. The Osage were horse thieves.

   The Kaskaskia (Illinois) were also a problem. The Kaskaskia occupied an area east of the Mississippi, between Missouri and Ohio. Many of the Missouri Shawnee still had relatives in Ohio. They had to cross Kaskaskia territory to visit these relations. Because the Kaskaskia had suffered at the hands of the Shawnee and, because the Shawnee were now suffering from depleted numbers, the Kaskaskia decided they would not let the Shawnee cross or hunt in their territory.

                                                                                         BIG MISTAKE!

   Open warfare began in 1802. The Shawnee attacked a very large Kaskaskia hunting party. In the combat that ensued, the Kaskaskia lost so many of their warriors, they never had the ability, let alone the desire, to anger the Shawnee again. The Shawnee may not have been able to stand up to the Americans, with their superior fire power and what seemed like an endless supply of man power, but against another Indian force, even one with greater numbers, they had no equals.  

 After Fort Greenville the alliance disintegrated. Alcohol became a major problem. Most of the organization of the tribes disintegrated as well. Bluejacket was recognized as the Chief of the Ohio Shawnee by Wayne. In 1801, an attempt to renew the alliance failed. The title of Chief of the Ohio Shawnee passed to Black Hoof, a Mecochee. Black Hoof was known as a "peace chief" willing to seek accommodation with the Americans, however, he was determined to hang on to Shawnee lands. While visiting the new Capitol of Washington, D.C. in 1802, he surprised Henry Dearborn, the Secretary of War, by demanding a deed from the United States to the Shawnee homeland in Ohio. The demand was not met.

(Much of the following is adapted from J.O.Lewis, dated 1823)

Tenskwatawa was one of a set of triplets born a few years after Tecumseh. One triplet, Sauwaseekau, was killed at the Battle of Fallen Timbers; the second, Kumskaukau, may have died young, for there are no records of his life; and the third, who would eventually be known as Tenskwatawa, was a fussy baby who was given the name Lalawetitheka - “The Rattle” or "He who makes a loud noise" . Unlike Tecumseh, Lalawetitheka was a clumsy child who was woefully unskilled in hunting and would never become a warrior - a serious social handicap for a young man in Shawnee society. Lalawetitheka lost his right eye in an early hunting accident and, as he grew older, developed a fondness for whiskey and quickly degenerated into severe alcoholism. Despite his flaws, Lalawetitheka was devoted to Tecumseh, and the older brother acted as his protector.

The decade following the Treaty of Greenville was not a happy time for the maturing Lalawetitheka. No longer a child, he now was forced to leave his sister's family and make his way in the world. During this period he took a wife and sired several children, but his growing family demanded support, and Lalawetitheka was ill equipped to provide for them. He made a desultory attempt at hunting, but the deer herds were diminishing and he often returned to his lodge empty handed. To drown his sense of failure, Lalawetitheka turned to the whiskey keg more and more , which only angered his wife and family and did little to solve his problems.

After moving to an area on the White River, Lalawetitheka became met Penagashea ("Changing Feathers"), an elder Shawnee highly respected as a prophet, priest and healer. At first Penagashea did not like the drunken young braggart. Eventually the two men became friends, and although Lalawetitheka had not experienced a vision, the aging Shawnee evidently shared some of his knowledge of medicine with him. In 1804 Penagashea died, and when Lalawetitheka attempted to take his place and cure the Shawnee, the aspiring new healer met with little success.

In early 1805 the white man's illness again spread through the Shawnee village. Some who received Lalawetitheka's herbs and incantations recovered, but many did not. Many of the tribe wondered aloud if a man who had broken all of the sacred laws of the Shawnee, could ever wear the mantle of prophet and healer.

The winter of 1804-05 seemed endless to the Shawnee. In addition to the usual icy nights and dreary over-cast days, another of the white man's nameless diseases had ravaged through their midst in February and March, taking the lives of the old and weak and debilitating even the strongest of warriors. By early April, the illness, probably the flu, had run its course. Nights remained cold, however, the warming days foretold that spring was near to hand. In the Shawnee village a heavyset man of thirty years sat cross-legged before the hearth of his wegiwa, a blanket wrapped around his shoulders against the chill of the approaching evening. During the recent epidemic he had treated his ailing kinsmen, but with little success. What was the cause of his failure? Other Shawnee knew him as a braggart and a drunk, a man who had violated sacred tribal law. As he reflected on his sins, the Shawnee reached into the fire to withdraw a twig to light his pipe. As he raised the pipe to his lips, Lalawetitheka gasped, dropped the blazing twig, and toppled over on his side. Believing her husband to be seriously ill, his wife ran to summon help from their neighbors. Lalawetitheka lay sprawled by the fire, as still as death. (Lalawetitheka may well have suffered a stroke.)

When Lalawetitheka’s wife and neighbors rushed back into the lodge they found the Shawnee still prostrate before the fire. His wife spoke to him. He did not answer. Other tribesmen rolled the Shawnee over onto his back. His eyes remained closed and he did not seem to be breathing. Believing the man to be dead, neighbors led his grieving wife from the wegiwa and made plans to wash the body in preparation for the two-day period before burial. By some accounts this was the first period that Lalawetitheka and Tecumseh were alone since the former “died”. As the funeral arrangements were being completed, the assembled Indians gasped in amazement as the supposedly dead Lalawetitheka first stirred, then awakened. Although dazed, he obviously was very much alive.

Like other great events in the Upper Country, it began with a prophet's vision. Tenskwatawa was mired in a life of alcohol and despair when, in 1805 he fell into a deep comma, awakened (after being alone with Tecumseh), and began to preach a compelling message from the Great Spirit.

His message was much the same as the Lenape prophet Neolin. Forty years earlier, Neolin preached a return to traditional ways, to forsake the white man's whiskey and trade goods. Unlike Neolin, Tenskwátawa did not have to wait for an Indian Messiah. He had his brother, Tecumseh! While his own people watched this sudden transformation with amazement, Tenskwatawa gathered a large following among the Shawnee and Lenape. There are many that, then and now, believed the “vision” was Tecumseh’s; that Tecumseh was the father of the idea and simply needed a spokesman, other than himself, to put the idea before the people.

The ways of the white men, he proclaimed, were an evil that corrupted all they touched. Not only did whites continue to devour Indian lands - another 48 million acres had been ceded through bribery or coercion since the 1795 Treaty of Fort Greenville - but their very presence brought spiritual decay. Dependent on the white world's tools, enthralled by its trinkets, and poisoned by its whiskey, Indian people were losing their very soul. Tenskwatawa called for a total rejection of white culture - its clothing and technology, its alcohol, and its religion. He also denounced the selling of land. No one really owned the land, he reminded his listeners, since by ancient tradition it belonged to everyone in common as a gift from the Great Spirit.

As he finished his story, Lalawetitheka began to weep and tremble. Overcome by emotion, he vowed to renounce his evil ways and never again drink the white man's whiskey. A changed man, he no longer was the drunken braggart known as Lalawetitheka. Henceforth he would be called Tenskwatawa, "the Open Door," a name symbolizing his new role as a holy man destined to lead his people down the narrow road toward paradise. Some of his audience remained skeptical, but many others were convinced of his sincerity and readily subscribed to the new prophet's doctrines.

In the following months Tenskwatawa, always after some private time with his brother, experienced additional visions and enlarged on his doctrine of Indian deliverance. Along with this bracing message, the Shawnee Prophet echoed another powerful refrain: the vision of an intertribal confederacy that would embrace all Indians everywhere. The person who came closest to making it happen was the Prophet's brother, Tecumseh.

Tecumseh stood six feet tall and cast a shadow that reached across the nation. Americans who met Tecumseh in a one-on-one situation described him as intelligent, friendly, an articulate and persuasive speaker and even charming. British Major-General Sir Isaac Brock said of Tecumseh “He who attracted most my attention was a Shawnee chief, Tecumseh. A more sagacious or a more gallant warrior does not, I believe, exist. He was the admiration of everyone who conversed with him.” Believed by many to be among the select few great chiefs, Tecumseh was respected, brave, a skilled politician, and spell-binding orator.

In a newspaper of the time, (December 1820)

Regally handsome, wise in council and courageous in battle, he was, arguably, the greatest native leader since the European invasion began in 1492. He led the Shawnee forces during Little Turtle's War, and he would not accept defeat. His signature is notable in that it is missing from the Greenville treaty. He was a man of learning and compassion. More than once he intervened to prevent the torture of prisoners, a common practice among both natives and whites. He had studied the Bible and world history.

Tecumseh thought of himself first as an Indian and second as a Shawnee. He was inspired by a vision of Indian Unity. To his way of thinking, the tribes must forget their old feuds and join together in a great military confederation; a single nation embracing all of eastern North America, from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.

In a newspaper of the time, (December 1820) The Indiana Centinel of Vincennes, Indiana published a letter praising the Shawnee Chief Tecumseh in these words, "He was truly great - and his greatness was his own, unassisted by science or the aids of education. As a statesman, a warrior and a patriot, take him all in all, we shall not look upon his like again."

According to one source, Tecumseh’s sworn enemy, William Henry Harrison, said “If it were not for the vicinity of the United States, he would perhaps be the founder of an empire that would rival in glory Mexico or Peru. No difficulties deter him. For four years he has been in constant motion. You see him today on the Wabash, and in a short time hear of him on the shores of Lake Erie or Michigan, or on the banks of the Mississippi, and wherever he goes he makes an impression favorable to his purpose.”

He was also absolutely determined to fight any further expansion of the United States into the Shawnee homeland.

In pursuit of that vision, Tecumseh challenged the United States by locating his village at the abandoned Ft. Greenville in 1805 in an area just outside the now-abandoned Fort Greenville. Intended as a place where native people could live free of white influence, it proved a powerful magnet for the Shawnee and many others.

Seeking stability in a world of chaos, Shawnee, Ottawa, Huron, Winnebago, Potawatomi, Ojibwa, and others joined at the place that came to be called Prophet's Town. Tribal social and political systems could not cope with the onrushing frontier. They grasped at the hope that the Master of Life had provided Tenskwatawa with a new faith to revitalize his chosen people.

The combination of the two brothers, one a political activist and the other a religious zealot, was powerful, and the size of their following grew. Tecumseh began to visit various tribes throughout the Northwest territories, filling the ears of all who would listen about the danger the whites posed to their land. Tecumseh was realistic about the Tribe’s chances of reclaiming land in the East, but he hoped to stop white expansion at the border agreed to in the Greenville Treaty. Despite Harrison's recent land purchases in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, Tecumseh pointed out the questionable nature of such transactions and dismissed the United States' claims

During the summer of 1805, Christian missionaries in eastern Indiana reported that their congregations were shrinking as a renewed "Heathenism" spread through the native villages. Meanwhile, the Prophet and his followers left the White River to establish a new village near Greenville, in western Ohio.

In late November 1805, as Tecumseh began traveling among the various eastern tribes, the new Shawnee holy man met with delegations of Shawnee, Ottawa, Wyandot, and Seneca at Wapakoneta, on the Auglaize River, where he expounded on his religion at some length. Since his initial vision in April, several similar experiences had provided Tenskwátawa with additional insights, which he incorporated into a well-defined pattern of religious and social doctrines. Much of the Prophet's dogma attached the decline of traditional moral values among the Shawnees and neighboring tribes. Declaring he "was particularly appointed to the office by the Great Spirit," Tenskwatawa asserted that his "sole object was to reclaim the Indians from bad habits and to cause them to live in peace with all mankind." First and foremost, he denounced the consumption of alcohol. Tenskwatawa asserted, now that was cured of his alcoholism, he would never again partake of the white man's firewater. He warned the tribesmen that frontier whiskey "was poison and accursed," and described in vivid detail the special tortures awaiting the souls of unrepentant alcoholics. Many of the audience were greatly alarmed and vowed to follow the Prophet's example.

Tenskwátawa also condemned the violence that recently had so permeated tribal society. He instructed his listeners to always treat tribal elders with respect and to provide for kinsmen who were injured, diseased, or incapable of caring for themselves. He admonished his followers to refrain from intertribal violence, urging warriors to treat each other as brothers, stop their quarreling, and never pilfer the belongings of fellow tribesmen. They must remain truthful and not strike their wives or children. Only if a married woman behaved so badly that she brought disrespect to her husband could the man "punish her with a rod," but afterward "both husband and wife was to look each other in the face and laugh and bear no ill will to each other for what had passed." Concerned about sexual promiscuity, the Prophet warned Shawnee women to remain faithful to their husband and decreed that warriors were not "to be running after women; if a man was single let him take a wife."

He informed them that they should extinguish the fires in their lodges and light new ones, the new flames to be kindled in the traditional manner, without using the white man's flint and steel: "The fire must never go out....Summer and winter, day and night, in the storm or when it is calm, you must remember that the life in your body, and the fire in your lodge are the same and of the same date. If you suffer your fire to be extinguished, at that moment your life will be at its end." The Prophesy also denounced many of the traditional tribal dances as corrupt, but suggested new ones that would both please the Master of Life and bring joy to the dancers. Moreover, Tenskwátawa instructed his listeners that they should pray to the Master of Life both morning and evening, asking that the earth be fruitful, the streams abound in fish, and the forest be full of game. To assist his followers with their prayers, he provided them with prayer sticks inscribed with certain symbols that epitomized the new faith. If the Indians were faithful, then the Master of Life would smile upon them and they would prosper.

Only after Tecumseh began his travels did Tenskwátawa’s “message” include accusations of disbelievers and the punishments they would receive for their “crimes“. Especially suspect were traditional shamans and their "juggleries." Those medicine men who might oppose Tenskwátawa's new doctrines were described as misguided fools or false prophets, men who would never know happiness. To destroy any vestige of the corrupt old ways, the Prophet ordered his followers to throw away their medicine bundles. Although these parcels contained items traditionally sacred to individual Shawnee, Tenskwátawa declared that this medicine "which has been good in its time, had lost its efficacy; that it had become vitiated through age." Those who abandoned their bundles would eventually "find [their] children or.... friends that have long been dead, restored to life."

Tenskwátawa traveled as well, although not as extensively, going to Black Hoof's village on the Auglaize River and preaching several sermons where he made a number of converts. The Delaware, hearing of Tenskwátawa's condemnation of rival religious leaders and Indians who followed white ways as witches, invited him to come to their villages on the White River and help them purify themselves. One old woman accused of witchcraft was roasted over a slow fire for four days, and four others were tortured and put to death. Tenskwátawa moved on to some Wyandot villages on the Sandusky River, where more witches were found. Fortunately for them, their chief forbade their persecution. ( Unlike Tenskwátawa, Tecumseh was always adamantly opposed to any use of torture.)

Although the Prophet's new creed attacked some facets of traditional Shawnee culture, it attempted to revitalize others. Indeed, much of Tenskwátawa's preaching was nativistic in both tone and content. If “magicians” and medicine bundles were forbidden, the Shawnees were encouraged to return to many other practices followed by their fathers. Tenskwátawa urged them to renounce their desire to accumulate property and to return to the communal life of the past. Those who accumulated "wealth and ornaments" would "crumble into dust," but tribesmen who shared with their brothers, "when they die[d] [were] happy; and, when they arrive[d] in the land of the dead, [would] find their wigwam furnished with everything they had on earth."

The Shawnee and other Indians also were admonished to return to the food, implements, and dress of their ancestors. Although white men kept such domestic animals as cattle, sheep, or hogs, such meat was unclean and not to be consumed by Indians. Even dogs were suspect, for he advised his followers that they were evil creatures and should be destroyed. In contrast, the Master of Life had given the tribesmen "the Deer, the Bear, and all wild animals, and the Fish that swim in the river." These species would provide meat for the Shawnee cooking pots. Neither were the Indians "on any account, to eat Bread. It is the food of the whites." Instead, the tribesmen were to cultivate corn, beans, and other crops raised by their fathers, and to gather maple syrup, which was special food, favored both by the Master of Life and Tenskwátawa.

In a similar manner, the Prophet instructed his followers to relinquish the white man's technology. Although guns might be used for self-defense, warriors were to hunt with bows and arrows. Stone and wood implements should replace metal ones and the tribesmen were to discard all items of European or American clothing. "You must not dress like the White man or wear hats like them....And when the weather is not severe, you must go naked excepting the breach cloth, and when you are clothed, it must be in skins or leather of your own Dressing." Moreover, the warriors were ordered to shave their heads, leaving only the scalp lock worn in the past.

Harrison quickly learned of Tecumseh's travels to various tribes. As he had not yet learned the nature of Tecumseh's visits, he was not unduly alarmed. When he heard of Tenskwátawa's witch trials, however, he sent a message reprimanding the tribes for listening to, what Harrison maintained was, a false prophet. Eager to expose Tenskwátawa as a fraud, Harrison advised the Delaware to demand some sign of divinity from the new prophet, adding, "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."

Harrison's strategy backfired when Tenskwátawa accepted the challenge, announcing that he would cause the sun to stand still on June 16, 1806, at Greenville. A large crowd showed up at the appointed place and time and observed a miracle - a dramatic total solar eclipse. The Americans protested that Tenskwátawa had somehow learned from some whites or an almanac when an eclipse was to take place (remember that it was Tecumseh that could read and, by all accounts, had access to English books.) Many of the Indians who had been wavering were now convinced that he did have incredible supernatural powers. Pilgrims began to swarm to Tenskwátawa and Tecumseh's village as stories circulated that the Prophet could heal wounds and diseases and perform many other miraculous feats.

Although most of the visitors came to see Tenskwátawa, Tecumseh was able to further his political agenda, selecting his main lieutenants from among the pilgrims. While Tenskwátawa remained occupied by his religious activities, Tecumseh began to organize the community and to capitalize on the flow of people. Many pilgrims were converted to both Tenskwátawa's religion and Tecumseh's politics and preached both these messages when they returned to their own tribes.

Tecumseh's success was a cause of concern for the U. S. government, as a main objective of the Americans from the beginning of their struggle with the Indians had been to keep them divided. In April 1807, a messenger was sent to Tecumseh from a low-ranking federal agent warning him that he and his followers needed to vacate Greenville immediately, as they had settled there in violation of the Fort Greenville Treaty. Tecumseh informed the messenger that if the president of the United States wanted to negotiate with him, he had better send someone of higher rank. The agent sent numerous messages to Harrison expressing his suspicions of the two brothers, but Harrison did not agree that they were a threat. He had demanded explanations of the brothers' activities in the past, but both had managed to convince him that they were simply pious, clean-living, politically neutral religious leaders. Harrison had even complimented Tecumseh in a letter written to the secretary of war, stating that he seemed to be a "bold, active, sensible man daring in the extreme and capable of any undertaking."

   Having alienated most of his own people and the surrounding villages of other tribes, Tenskwátawa, in the spring of 1808, after obtaining permission of the Potawatomi and the Kickapoo, established Prophetstown in western Indiana on Tippecanoe Creek.

   Tenskwátawa visited Vincennes in August and met with William Henry Harrison. The governor of the Indiana Territory would soon become Tecumseh's arch rival for control of the Northwest Territories. The meeting ended amicably, but Harrison did not trust the Shawnee Prophet. In the spring of 1809, Harrison sent spies to keep an eye on developments in Prophetstown.

   They reported that Tecumseh had recruited close to 3,000 warriors, of different tribes, that stood ready to resist American expansion.

   On instructions from Congress, Harrison was to lay claim to all Indian lands west to Indiana and Illinois and they did not care whether he used diplomacy or force.

   In 1809, under threats of force and the wide distribution of whiskey, Harrison had signed treaties with the Miami, Kaskaskia, Lenape, and Potawatomi at Ft. Wayne and Vincennes. These treaties ceeded three million acres of southern Indiana and Illinois.  Tecumseh was outraged and threatened to execute the chiefs who had signed and any other chiefs that would sign such a treaty in the future. His followers did just that the following June to Leatherlips, a Wyandot chief. The warriors brought the wampum belts and Pipe of the old western alliance to Prophetstown.

   In August, Tecumseh met with Harrison at Vincennes. Harsh words were exchanged which almost resulted in a conflict between Harrison's soldiers and Tecumseh's escort. Both sides had weapons drawn before Tecumseh thought better of starting a fight right then and there and had his men back off.

   In the summer of 1811, they met again. By this time, both men were convinced war was inevitable. In late summer of 1811, Tecumseh, once again, headed south to recruit the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Cherokee and Muskogee. He gave his brother instructions that, while he was gone, he was not to provoke any confrontation with the Americans.

   Tecumseh had just crossed to the south side of the Ohio when, at the urgings of Tenskwatawa, the chief of the Potawatomi, Main Poche, led his warriors on raids on the settlements in Illinois, firing tempers all over the frontier.

   With both regular soldiers and volunteer militia, Harrison had approximately 1,ooo troops at his command . They were moving towards Prophetstown. North of Terre Haute, Indiana, right at the treaty line, they stopped long enough to build Ft. Harrison. The Army stopped their march in November just across Tippacanoe Creek from Prophetstown. Hostilities had not yet begun.

   Tenskwátawa ignored the orders he had received from Tecumseh. Using “kamikaze” warriors, the Prophet ordered them to attack and kill Harrison. The battle ended in a draw, The Americans lost 62 killed and 126 wounded. When the warriors withdrew, Harrison burned Prophetstown. Tippecanoe was not an important victory. It did give William Henry Harrison a new nickname, "Old Tippecanoe." (When Harrison ran for President, the campaign slogan became “Tippecanoe and Tyler too") This ruined Tenskwátawa's reputation as a seer. The Winnebago “arrested" him and held him prisoner for two weeks until Tecumseh returned in January. The alliance was destroyed and the War of 1812 (1812-14) was only months away. Only slightly restoring the alliance, Tecumseh had recruited over 1,000 warriors in Canada to fight for the British by the time the United States declared war on England in June. In May, the Wyandot, Lenape, and, most notably, the Shawnee, after a council with Tecumseh and his brother on the Mississinewa River (Indiana) declared their neutrality. Some, principally among the Lenape, even supported the Americans. 

   As war began, the Americans suffered a series of disasters. In July, General William Hull invaded Canada. Hearing a rumor that 5,000 warriors were coming by canoe, down Lake Huron, ran back to Detroit. Hull's opponent was actually only 800 warriors and 300 Canadians. A couple of detachments were attacked near Detroit. In August, Hull surrendered without a fight. His surrender was an act which earned him the distinction of being the only American general ever to stand courts-martial for cowardice, convicted and sentenced to death by firing squad. He was later reprieved by President James Madison.

   With the victory at Detroit, Tecumseh was able to recruit more warriors to the cause. With this new force, Tecumseh began raids against American forts and settlements as far west as Missouri.

   Tecumseh and Tenskwátawa returned to northern Indiana after the death of Little Turtle in July. There purpose was to recruit warriors among the Miami. In September, the Prophet led an attack on Fort Harrison, garrisoned by 50 regulars and commanded by Zachary Taylor. The failure of this action ended the military career of Tenskwatawa.

    Command of the American army in the Northwest was given to William Henry Harrison. He launched a campaign, forcing the Prophet and his followers to return to Canada. In early 1813, Harrison built Ft. Ferree on the upper Sandusky and moved the Lenape from Indiana to the Shawnee villages at Piqua and Auglaize in Ohio to hinder the chances of both the Shawnee and Lenape from joining Tecumseh. By this time neither one of them trusted the other and each were equally afraid of their activities being reported to Harrison or Tecumseh.

    A unit of the militia numbering 900 men from Kentucky, commanded by General James Winchester, was ambushed in southeast Michigan on the Raisin River. A third (300) were killed outright. After surrendering, 50 prisoners were killed while British officers stood and watched. Tecumseh (who had a strong personal aversion to torture and massacre) intervened and stopped any further massacre. He branded the British officers as cowards for not protecting American prisoners. Harrison kept advancing and built Ft. Meigs on the Maumee River in February. Meanwhile, Tecumseh returned to Indiana and increased his force to almost 2,000. In May, supporting new British commander, Colonel Henry Procter, thet attacked Fort Meigs, but the Americans held on. Many of Tecumseh's warriors, like most Indians, couldn’t adapt to siege warfare and just went home. Proctor was forced to end the siege. He made a second attempt in July. It too, was unsuccessful. By August, after Oliver Perry's naval victory on Lake Erie, Harrison an army of almost 8,000, was ready to march.

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