The Land of the Miamis: An Account of the Struggle to Secure Possession of the North-West from the End of the Revolution until 1812Barce, Elmore
History
The Land of the Miamis: An Account of the Struggle to Secure Possession of the North-West from the End of the Revolution until 1812
Barce, Elmore
Indians of North America -- Wars -- 1750-1815; Miami Indians; Northwest, Old -- History
interpretation of dreams, and offering sacrifices to spiritual powers;
pretended to see into futurity and to foretell events, and announced
himself to be the mouth-piece of God."
The first assemblage at Wapakoneta, was later followed by a series of
pilgrimages to Greenville, which shortly spread alarm among the white
settlers. Hundreds of savages flocked around the new seer from the
rivers and lakes of the northwest and even from beyond the Mississippi.
In May of 1807 great numbers passed and re-passed through Fort Wayne. In
a letter of date August 20th, 1807, from William Wells, the United
States Indian agent at the last named place, to Governor Harrison at
Vincennes, Wells relates that the lake Indians from the vicinity of
Mackinac are flocking to Greenville; that the Prophet is instilling the
doctrine that in a few years the Great Spirit will destroy every white
man in America, and that the inhabitants of Detroit are fortifying
themselves against attack. To all these savage gatherings the Prophet
preached the new propaganda. He denounced drunkenness, and said that he
had gone up into the clouds and had seen the abode of the Devil; that
there he saw all the drunkards and that flames of fire continually
issued from their mouths, and that all who used liquor in this world
would suffer eternal torment in the next; he advocated a return to
pristine habits and customs, counseling the tribes "to throw away their
flints and steels, and resort to their original mode of obtaining fire
by percussion. He denounced the woolen stuffs as not equal to skins for
clothing; he commended the use of the bow and arrow. As to
inter-marriage between the races, all this was prohibited. The two races
were distinct and must remain so. Neither could there be any separate or
individual ownership of any of the Indian lands; these were the common
heritage of all. The weak, aged and infirm were to be cherished and
protected; parental authority was to be obeyed. In conclusion, he never
failed to proclaim that the Great Spirit had gifted him with the divine
power to 'cure all diseases and to arrest the hand of death, in
sickness, or on the battlefield'."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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