Boys' Book of Indian Warriors and Heroic Indian WomenSabin, Edwin L. (Edwin Legrand)
History
Boys' Book of Indian Warriors and Heroic Indian Women
Sabin, Edwin L. (Edwin Legrand)
Indians of North America -- Biography; Indians of North America -- Wars
He was handsome, too--a true prince: six feet tall and broad
shouldered, of active and haughty mien, quick step, large flashing
eye's, and thin, oval Indian face, with regular features. His face was
the kind that could burn with the fire of his mind.
In 1800 the Northwest Territory of which General Saint Clair had been
the first governor was divided. The name Northwest Territory was
limited to about what is now the state of Ohio; all west of that, to
the Mississippi River, was Indiana Territory.
Captain William Henry Harrison, who had resigned from the army, was
appointed governor and Indian commissioner, of Indiana Territory. He
moved to Vincennes, the capital, on the lower Wabash. Chief Tecumseh
was living eastward on the White River. Their trails were pointing in.
Two master minds were to meet and wrestle.
The name of one of the two twins, brothers of Tecumseh, was
La-la-we-thi-ka, meaning "Rattle" or "Loud Voice." He was not
handsome. He was blind in the right eye and had ugly features. He was
looked upon as a mouthy, shallow-brained, drunken fellow, of little
account as a warrior. His band invited Tecumseh's band to unite with
them at Greenville, in western Ohio where General Saint Clair's Fort
Jefferson and General Wayne's Fort Greenville had been built.
Then, almost immediately, or in the fall of 1805, "Loud Voice" arose as
the Prophet.
While smoking his pipe in his cabin he fell backward in a pretended
trance, and lay as if dead. But before he was buried, he recovered.
He said that he had been to the spirit world. He called all the nation
to meet him at Wapakoneta, the ancient principal village of the
Shawnees, fifty miles northeast, and listen to a message from the
Master of Life.
The message was a very good one. It was a great deal like the message
of the Delaware prophet, as used by Pontiac. The Indians were to cease
white-man habits. They must quit fire-water poison, must cherish the
old and sick, must not marry with the white people, must cease bad
medicine-making (witch-craft) and tortures; and must live happily and
peacefully, sharing their lands in common.
As for him, he had been given power to cure all diseases, and to ward
off death on the battle-field.
He changed his name to Ten-skwa-ta-wa--the "Open Door," but is
generally styled the Prophet. His words created intense excitement.
Shawnees, Delawares and other Indians came from near and far to visit
him. Tecumseh was very willing. It was a great thing to have a
prophet for a brother--and whether this was a put-up job between them,
is to this day a mystery. But they were smart men.
The Prophet enlarged his rant. To the whites he proclaimed that he,
the Open Door, Tecumseh, the Shooting Star, and the other twin brother
all had come at one birth. He asserted that their father had been the
son of a Shawnee chief and a princess, daughter of a great English
governor in the South.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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