USA > North Dakota > Early history of North Dakota: essential outlines of American history > Part 14
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His friends claimed that he had gained superior insight and knowledge of spiritual things by means of a trance, in which he was believed to be dead, and preparations were made for his funeral, but he revived, and announced himself the bearer of a new revelation from the Master of Life.
He warned his followers against the use of intoxicating liquors, depicting the horrors of drunkenness so vividly, that intoxication became almost unknown among the Indians during the period of his influence. He required a return to the primitive life, all property to be in common, according to the ancient laws of the tribes, and all the white man's tools must be discarded, and his customs renounced. He denounced the witchcraft practices and medicinal juggleries, reserving to himself the power to cure all diseases, and stay the hand of death from disease or wounds by supernatural skill. He forbade intermarriage with the whites, and the adoption of their dress and firearms, and admonished the young to respect the aged and infirm. They must give up their dogs, and keep a fire ever burning in the lodge.
His followers carried their virtues to such an extent that they even emulated the whites of New England, and burned their witches, roasting one subject four days, before death came to her relief.
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His fame extended to the extreme Southwest, where the Indians had looked for a messiah under whose influence "the earth should teem with fruit and flowers without the pains of culture, when an ear of corn should be as much as one man could carry, and the cotton as it grew should of its own accord take the rich dyes of human art, and the air should be laden with intoxicating per- fumes and the melody of birds."
Under the vigorous preaching of a former prophet, many in the southwest gave up their flocks and herds, their apiaries and orchards-for they were becom- ing civilized-and returned to the forest to take up the simple life of their fathers. The influence of the Shawnee Prophet extended to all western and southwestern tribes. The Chippewa killed their dogs, ceased, in a measure, to fear the Sioux, and tried to lead the life taught by the one they had learned to love and look upon as a redeemer. They had mysterious rites of confirmation peculiar to their religion.
THE SHAWNEE PROPHET'S MESSENGER AT PEMBINA
Tanner's "Narrative" describes the effect at the Pembina Post of the Prophet's doctrines :
The next spring (1806) we had assembled at the trading house at Pembina. The chiefs built a great lodge. and called the men together to receive information concerning the Great Spirit. The messenger of the revelation was Manito-o- geezhik, a man of no great fame (not Tanner's foster-father) but well known among the Chippewas. Little Clam took it upon himself to explain about the meet- ing. He sang and prayed, and proceeded to detail the principal features of the revelation brought by Manito-o-geezhik : The Indians were to go no more against their enemies; they must no longer steal, defraud or lie, they must neither be drunk, nor eat their food nor drink their broth when it was hot; and henceforth the fire must never be suffered to go out in the lodge, summer or winter, day or night, in storm, or when it was calm. They must remember that the life in the body and the fire in the lodge are the same. and of the same date. If they suf- fered their fires to be extinguished, at that moment their lives would end. They must not suffer a dog to live. The Prophet himself was coming to shake hands with them, but Manito-o-geezhik had come before that they might know what was the will of the Great Spirit, communicated to us by him, and to inform them that the preservation of their lives depended upon their entire obedience.
They understood that they were not to kindle a fire with the steels and flint of the white man, but with the fire sticks of the olden times, nor were they to use the firearms obtained from the whites, but the bows and arrows given to their fathers.
Many of the Indians killed their dogs and threw away their steel and flints, and endeavored to do as Manito-o-geezhik had instructed Little Clam to say to them. They moved about in fear and humility, and distress and anxiety were visible in every countenance.
Under this inspiration, and the promise that the Sioux should not hurt them, they went to the waters of the Upper Red River, where Tanner hunted for beaver, and Little Clam relying on the promise, led a party of ten warriors and their families towards Devils Lake but the whole band was cut off by the Sioux.
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When found, the body of Little Clam was shot full of arrows and on the camp ground were many bodies of women and children. Only one man escaped.
About this time, a leading chief and forty young men came from Leech Lake to Pembina to learn more of the message from the Prophet. The arrival of his messenger and the ceremony of shaking hands, is thus described by Tanner:
"When he arrived, he at first maintained a long and mysterious silence before announcing that he was the forerunner of the Great Prophet who would soon shake hands with the Chippewa and reveal to them his inspired words, and set forth the new manner of living which they were hereafter to adopt.
"When the Indians had gathered in the lodge, we saw something carefully concealed under a blanket, in figure and dimensions bearing some resemblance to a man. This was accompanied by two young men, who it was understood attended constantly upon it, made its bed at night, as for a man, and slept near it. But when removed no one went near it, or raised the blanket which was spread over its unknown contents.
"Four strings of mouldy and discolored beads were all the visible insignia of this important man.
"After a long harangue, in which the prominent features of the new revela- tion were stated and urged upon the attention of all, the four strings of beads, which we were told were made of the flesh of the Prophet, were carried with much solemnity to each man in the lodge, and he was expected to take hold of each string at the top and draw them quietly through his hand.
"This was called 'shaking hands with the Prophet,' and was considered as solemnly engaging to obey his instructions and accept of his mission as from the Supreme.
"All the Indians that touched the beads had piously killed their dogs; they gave up their medicine bags, and showed a disposition to comply with all that should be required of them. But in time these new impressions were obliterated, medicine bags, flints and steels, the use of which had been forbidden, were brought into use, dogs were reared, women and children beaten as before and the Shawnee Prophet was depised."
THE SIOUX AT THE GATES
During the meeting where they went through the ceremony described, the Sioux were lying in wait to attack Fort Pembina, and at its close when the gates were opened to turn a horse out to graze, they fired and killed the horse.
The Chippewa who were feasting and dancing after the ceremony took up arms at once, and pursued the Sioux, but without result.
The attacking party proved to be only Wanoton, mentioned in connection with Major Long's expedition, and his uncle. The influence of the Prophet re- mained for two or three years, during which time there was less drunkenness. and less fear of the Sioux.
Tanner did not kill his dogs, throw away his flint, or keep his fires burning, but confesses that he was sometimes uneasy.
JEFFERSON TO ADAMS
Ex-President Thomas Jefferson to Ex-President John Adams gave his opinion of the Prophet in the following terms :
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"The Wabash Prophet is more rogue than fool, if to be a rogue is not the greatest of follies. He rose to notice while I was in the administration, and became, of course, a proper subject for me. The inquiry was made with dili- gence. His declared object was the reformation of his red brothers and their return to their primitive manner of living. He pretended to be in constant com- munication with the Great Spirit. *
* I concluded from all this, that he was a visionary, enveloped in their antiquities and vainly endeavoring to lead back his brethren to the fancied beatitude of the golden age. I thought there was little danger of his making many proselytes from the habits and comforts they had learned from the whites, to the hardships and privations of savagism, and no great harm, if he did. But his followers increased, until the British thought him worth corrupting, and found him corruptible. I suppose his views were then changed, but his proceedings in consequence of them were after I left the admin- istration, and are therefore unknown to me; nor have I ever been informed what were the particular acts on his part which produced an actual commencement of hostilities on ours. I have no doubt, however, that the subsequent proceedings are but a chapter apart, like that of Henry and Lord Liverpool, in the book of the Kings of England."
It is admitted that there is no doubt that the Shawnee Prophet really sought the good of his people, and believed in the beneficial effects of his doctrines, although it is claimed that his inquisition was shocking in its cruelty.
TERRITORY ACQUIRED
Through the Treaty of Paris the United States acquired the territory Great Britain claimed by right of discovery, and would have held notwithstanding the natural rights of those dispossessed. Upon the organization, in 1788 of this addi- tion to the Union, named the "Northwest Territory" Gen. Arthur St. Clair was appointed the first governor and was made commander-in-chief of the militia therein, to order, rule, and govern conformably to the ordinance of the 13th of July, 1787, entitled "An ordinance for the government of the territory of the United States northwest of the River Ohio." The commission took effect the ist day of February, 1788, to continue three years, and he held the post until 1802. In the beginning of his administration he met the tribes who complained that the whites were not willing to regard the Ohio River as a boundary, at Fort Harmar (now Marietta)-erected in 1785-86 on the right bank of the Muskingum River at its junction with the Ohio, in honor of Gen. Josiah Harmar-in order to make treaties with them; and in his address he reminded them that they had been allies of Great Britain in the Revolutionary war, and the loss of the lands was one of the consequences of defeat. The first division of the Northwest Ter- ritory was into Ohio and Indiana. Ohio was admitted into the Union and Michi- gan was created, and the boundaries of Michigan extended to take in a good part of North Dakota.
DRAWING THE LINE
It was when the religious excitement attending the rise of the Shawnee Prophet was at its height, that Tecumseh took advantage of it to incite the Indians
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of the west and southwest to resist the further advance of the whites, drawing the line at the Ohio River, as later, Sitting Bull drew it at the Missouri.
Messengers were sent to every Indian nation, and representatives of the various tribes of the northwest convened at the headquarters of the Shawnee Prophet at Greenville, Ohio, in order to learn the new doctrine and receive con- firmation of the belief in him through his dreams and repeated revelations and predictions ; among the latter the eclipse of the sun in the summer of 1806, which he claimed as a proof of his own supernatural powers.
The movement was a revolt against the breaking down of old Indian customs and modes of life and the encroachment of the whites on their domain.
HARRISON AND TECUMSEH
Tecumseh and the Prophet held a tract of land on the Tippecanoe River, one of the tributaries of the Wabash River. To this place in the western part of what is now Indiana, Tecumseh and the Prophet, with their following, removed in the spring of 1808. They laid out a village known as the Prophet's Town, and attracted to this center a large number of northern Indians.
General William Henry Harrison had served under Major General St. Clair and Gen. Anthony Wayne, and commanded Fort Washington (now Cincinnati) in 1795, and was secretary of the territory northwest of Ohio in 1797. In 1801, he was appointed governor of the new territory of Indiana, which comprised the present states of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, nearly all in the pos- session of the Indians, with whom as superintendent of Indian affairs, Harrison made treaties. The year of his appointment he went to the French Village of Vincennes, and in June, 1808, Tecumseh sent a deputation of Indians to him there with a message from the Prophet. This was followed in August, by a visit from the Prophet in person who was entertained at Vincennes two weeks; Gen- eral Harrison forming a very favorable opinion of him and his abilities. The party carried a supply of provisions on their return to Tippecanoe.
In June, 1810, Geneal Harrison sent two agents to Tippecanoe to more fully acquaint himself with the designs of the Prophet. and invited Tecumseh to meet him at Vincennes on August 15th, for the purpose of an interchange of friendly greetings, but Tecumseh came with an armed force of seventy warriors. They met in a grove of trees southwest of the Harrison mansion, in front of the porch, General Harrison on the porch, Chief Tecumseh in the grove. The grove and porch remained until 1840; the main house and grounds in good preservation until 1855.
Tecumseh, in response to Harrison's assurance of friendly feeling, insisted on an exact interpretation of his words in language which implied that Harrison lied when he said the Government was friendly to the Indians, for it had cheated them and stolen their lands. This terminated the interview by Harrison's order, and Tecumseh and his warriors withdrew.
In the following autumn, General Harrison was informed by a chief that the attitude of the Prophet was hostile, and Gen. William Clark, governor of Mis- souri, wrote to General Harrison that belts of wampum had been sent to the tribes west of the Mississippi, with an invitation to unite in a war against the United States.
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BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE
A year later, on the 26th of September, 1811, General Harrison in command of a military expedition against the Tippecanoe confederacy, left Vincennes, with, as it proved, a fallacious hope, that the advance of the forces of the United States army would frighten the Indians into abandoning their designs against the government.
He sent a message to the Prophet's Town, "directing the assembled Indians who were at Tippecanoe, to return to their tribes; that stolen horses should be restored and murderers of white people be delivered up."
The agent of the governor having delivered his message, returned to head- quarters, and on the 29th of October the army, numbering about nine hundred men, began their march ; on the night of the 5th of November encamping within ten miles of "Prophet's Town," and meeting parties of Indians in the vicinity of the village. On the 6th of November two interpreters were directed to com- municate with some of the Indians, but they refused to hold communication with them except by gestures. The forces of General Harrison encamped for the night within a mile and a half of the town, sending forward a flag of truce.
The Indians at first refused to answer and tried to cut his messenger off from the rest of the army, but later sent out three Indians to inquire the reason for the advance.
The messenger they said had gone another route, and they had missed him.
General Harrison agreed to suspend hostilities until the next day, for pur- poses of treaty, and that night his army slept on their arms.
Tecumseh was absent in the southwest and had left orders that war was to be avoided at all hazards until his return, but early in the evening the Indians held a council, and formed a plan, which during the night was changed, it was said through the deception of the Shawnee Prophet, who told them that one-half of Harrison's army was dead, and the other half crazy, and before daylight the entire force of the Prophet's army was creeping through the grass upon the out- posts of General Harrison's camp. The men had not been roused for reveille an hour before daylight, when a single shot of a sentinel surprised by an Indian creeping upon him, broke the stillness. The wild yell of the Indian fired on was followed by the war whoop, and the entire Tippecanoe force was upon them, first overwhelming the guard, who fell back on the camp which was prepared for immediate action.
The Prophet, discreetly taking his position on a hill in the rear, prophesied suc- cess to the Indians who would be safe from all harm, spurring them to action by the shriek of his war song, and under this influence they made bold to fight in open battle, rushing right upon the bayonets in the hands of their antagonists, who with a last fierce charge put the Indians to flight, just as the dawn broke over the field of carnage.
"Day glimmers on the dying and the dead. * *
* * * *
* * *
The war-horse masterless is on the earth, And that last gasp hath burst his bloody girth ! And near, yet quivering with what life remained The heel that urged him, and the hand that reined." -Byron's Lara.
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The loss of the United States forces in killed at the Battle of Tippecanoe, including those who died from their wounds soon after, was 50, and the total loss in killed and wounded 188. The Indians left 38 dead on the field of battle, and with those they carried with them their loss must have amounted to an equal number.
On the morning of the 8th of November, 1811, "Prophet's Town" was de- serted, and the United States troops moved slowly back to the fort at Vincennes. The Prophet's influence was overthrown, and the Universal Indian Confederacy wa's a dream of the past.
General Harrison was promoted to major general, and fought the Battle of the Thames River, October 5, 1813, defeating the allied British and Indians, including Tecumseh, in the recovery of American territory. Tecumseh was killed. The Thames River flows between Lake Huron and Lake Erie, discharging into Lake St. Clair, and the battlefield was near the site of the present City of Chatham, Ontario.
General Harrison died in the executive mansion at Washington, April 4, 1841, after an illness of eight days, at the close of a month's administration as Presi- dent of the United States.
THE PASSING OF TENSKWATAWA
Many Indians who after the defeat at Tippecanoe at first seemed inclined to treat, joined the British forces during the War of 1812, but at that period the Shawnee Prophet was shorn of his, prestige, and faith in his doctrines had dimin- ished to almost complete extinction.
In an official report, Lieut. General Prevost formally acknowledged the indebt- edness of the British "to Tecumseh and the Prophet," after the destruction of Detroit by their forces.
Pensioned by the British government, under whose flag he had fought in that war, Tenskwatawa at its close became a resident of Canada, but in 1826, rejoined his tribe in Ohio, from thence removing to Missouri, and subsequently with his band to Kansas, where he died in 1837 in the month of November-which seemed to hold a strange fatality for him-and is buried in an unknown grave.
To him might Joaquin Miller's counsel well apply :
"Speak ill of him who will, he died.
Say this much and be satisfied."
"A CHAPTER APART"
LORD LIVERPOOL-VISCOUNT CASTLEREAGH-SIR JAMES CRAIG-H. W. RYLAND -- CAPT. JOHN HENRY-ORDERS IN COUNCIL-IMPRESSMENT OF SAILORS-THE EMBARGO-PRELIMINARY LETTERS-THE SECRET CORRESPONDENCE.
The chapter apart involving "Henry and Lord Liverpool,"' which President Jefferson places on a par with the "subsequent proceedings" of the Shawnee Prophet episode, left an ineffaceable impression upon the page of the political history of the century.
Capt. John Henry, whose origin is subject of dispute, came from somewhere in the British Isles in 1793 to Philadelphia, where he became editorially con- nected with the public press. During the unpleasantness with France he served in the United States army as a captain of artillery, hence his title, and at its close once more took up the profession of journalism. Some of his articles in opposition to a republican form of government had a wide circulation, and showed a discrimination so keen, and a knowledge of the internal affairs of the republic so intimate and apparently so useful for shaping the policy of foreign powers that they aroused interest on both sides of the Atlantic, and were called to the attention of the chief actors in the stirring events immediately preceding the War of 1812.
Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, the most prominent figure in the United States during his term of service, 1801-1809, was serving his two terms as President of the United States. In 1790 the country was divided into two political parties, the federalists and the republicans, the cabinet of President Washington being composed of warring elements. Thomas Jefferson, secretary of state, represented the republicans and was an unyielding advocate of state sovereignty and decen- tralization. Alexander Hamilton, secretary of the treasury, charged by Jefferson with the desire of creating a monarchy in America, stood at the head of the federalists, and established the Bank of the United States against the protest of Jefferson, and of Edmund Randolph, the attorney-general. In 1791 Jefferson carried on a correspondence with the British minister in relation to alleged violations of the treaty of peace with Great Britain.
The year 1799 brought a change in public opinion in favor of the republican party. and Jefferson was elected President and was inaugurated March 4, 1801. Then followed the Louisiana Purchase, the exploration of the continent to the Pacific Ocean, and the re-election of Jefferson for the presidential term com- mencing March 4, 1805, the year of the Shawnee Prophet uprising.
In a message to the Tenth Congress President Jefferson thus refers to our relations with the Indians :
"With our Indian neighbors the public peace has been steadily maintained.
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Ulysses S. Grant
Rutherford B. Hayes
James A. Garfield
Chester A. Arthur
Grover Cleveland
PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES FROM 1869 TO 1889
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From a conviction that we consider them as a part of ourselves, and cherish with sincerity their rights and interests, the attachment of the Indian tribes is gaining strength daily, is extending from the nearer to the more remote, and will amply requite us for the justice and friendship practiced towards them. Hus- bandry and household manufacture are advancing among them, more rapidly with the southern than northern tribes, from circumstances of soil and climate; and one of the two great divisions of the Cherokee Nation has now under consideration to solicit the friendship of the United States and to be identified with us in laws and government in such progressive manner as we shall think best."
ORDERS IN COUNCIL
In 1806, approaching the period of the Henry letters, the country became powerfully excited by the loss of its profitable foreign trade as a neutral through the British "orders in council," and Napoleon Bonaparte's Berlin decree blockad- ing European ports, and still more by the right asserted by Great Britain of searching American vessels, which were boarded and the sailors impressed as subjects of the King. "A practice," as proclaimed by Henry Clay, "which can obtain countenance from no principle whatever, and to submit to which on our part would betray the most abject degradation."
The ships and commerce of European nations had been destroyed by the wars being waged, and the United States being neutral profited by it, her vessels carrying from port to port the products of France and the dependent kingdoms, and, also, to those ports the manufactures of England. Great Britain and the United States held undisputed sway on the ocean, but American ships carrying to Europe the products of French colonies were often captured by British cruisers, and in May, 1806, several European ports under French control were by British orders in council declared in a state of blockade, though without being invested by a British fleet. United States vessels attempting to enter these ports were captured and condemned by the British. France and her allies also suffered from these orders, and in November, 1806, Napoleon issued a decree at Berlin declaring the British Islands in a state of blockade, authorizing the capture of all neutral vessels attempting to enter these ports. Thus the commerce of the United States was made to suffer by both nations.
IMPRESSMENT OF SAILORS
Great Britain had searched American vessels, and at the time of the war had taken from them by force every seaman supposed to be of British birth, to the number of more than six thousand men, and compelled them to enter the British navy to man their great fleet. The British claimed that the United States government "encouraged individuals to enter her marine, and become traitors to their country ; false certificates of citizenship," they declared, "and an ear-ring in the ear, made an Englishman an American, and the Yorkshire dialect or the west country pronunciation would contradict the solemn assertions that they were Americans."
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