Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB
[graphic][subsumed]

THE

NEW YORK

PUBLIC LIBRARY

A Lax and Tépe

quat-a-wah, which, in the dialect of the Shawanees, signifies the open door. He began to declaim against witchcraft, the use of intoxicating liquors, the custom of Indian women intermarrying with white men, the dress and habits of the white people, and the practice of selling Indian lands to the United States. He told the Indians that the commands of the Great Spirit required them to punish, with death, those who practiced the arts of witchcraft and magic. He told them, also, that the Great Spirit had given him power to find out and expose such persons to cure all kinds of diseases-to confound his enemies-and to "stay the arm of death in sickness, and on the battlefield."* His harangues aroused, among some bands of Indians, a high degree of superstitious excitement. An old Delaware chief, whose name was Tate-e-bock-o-she, through whose influence a treaty had been made with the Delawares in 1804, was accused of withcraft, tried, condemned, and tomahawked. His body was then consumed by fire. The wife of the old chief, his nephew, who was known by the name of Billy Patterson, and an aged Indian, whose name was Joshua, were then accused of witchcraft, and condemned to death. The two men were burnt at the stake; but the life of the wife of Tate-e-bock-o-she was saved by her brother, who suddenly approached her, took her by the hand, and, without meeting with any opposition from the Indians who were present, led her out of the council-house. He then immediately returned, and checked the growing influence of the prophet by exclaiming, in a strong, earnest voice: "The evil spirit has come among us, and we are killing each other."

When Governor Harrison, early in 1806, received information of these events, he sent to the Delaware towns, on White river, a special messenger with a speech, in which the Indians were strongly entreated to renounce their delusions in relation to witchcraft, and to reject the counsels of the prophet. The following passages are copied from this speech:

"My children,-My heart is filled with grief, and my eyes are dissolved in tears at the news which has reached me.

Drake's Life of Tecumseh, p. 88.

You

Tate-e-bock-o-she was burned at the Indian village which stood at the

site of Yorktown, in Delaware county.

have been celebrated for your wisdom above all the tribes of red people who inhabit this great island. Your fame as warriors has extended to the remotest nations, and the wisdom of your chiefs has gained for you the appellation of grandfathers from all the neighboring tribes. * * * *My children,Tread back the steps you have taken, and endeavor to regain the straight road which you have abandoned. The dark, crooked, and thorny one which you are now pursuing will certainly lead to endless woe and misery. But who is this pretended prophet who dares to speak in the name of the Great Creator? Examine him. Is he more wise or virtuous than you are yourselves, that he should be selected to convey to you the orders of your God? Demand of him some proofs, at least, of his being the messenger of the Deity. If God has really employed him, he has doubtless authorized him to perform some miracles, that he may be known and received as a prophet. 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. If he does these things, you may then believe that he has been sent from God. *** My children,-Do not believe that the great and good Creator of mankind has directed you to destroy your own flesh; and do not doubt but that, if you pursue this abominable wickedness, his vengeance will overtake and crush you?"

About the close of the year 1805, or early in 1806, the prophet, and his brother, Tecumseh, accompanied by a small band of Shawanees, removed, from the Delaware towns on White river, to Greenville, in the State of Ohio. Drawing around him a considerable number of followers, the prophet continued to reside in the vicinity of this place until the opening of the spring of 1808, when having, by his artful policy, aroused the suspicions of some of the officers of the Indian department, and the fears of many of the pioneer settlers of Ohio, he removed from Greenville, and, by the permission of the Pottawattamies and Kickapoos, settled on the banks of the Wabash, near the mouth of the Tippecanoe river, at a place which afterward bore the name of the Prophet's Town. In the month of June, 1808, the number of the prophet's followers, at this new settlement, amounted to about one hundred and forty persons, of whom about forty were Shawanees.

While the fame and the influence of the Shawanee prophet were increasing among some of the tribes of northwestern Indiana, Tecumseh was actively engaged in making efforts to form these various tribes into one great confederacy. In the speeches which were delivered by him, at the Indian councils, he proclaimed that the treaties by which the United States had acquired lands northwest of the river Ohio, were not made with fairness, and were void; that no single tribe of Indians were invested with the right to sell lands without the consent of all the other tribes; and that he and his brother, the prophet, would oppose and resist any further attempts which the white people might make to extend their settlements over the lands which belonged to the Indians; but it does not appear that he expressed a desire to engage in a war against the United States.

Early in the year 1808, Governor Harrison addressed a speech to "the chiefs and head men of the Shawanee tribe of Indians." This speech, which was delivered by the messenger, John Connor, before an assemblage of Shawanee Indians, and in the presence of the prophet, contained the following passage: "My children-this business must be stopped. I will no longer suffer it. You have called a number of men from the most distant tribes to listen to a fool, who speaks not the word of the Great Spirit, but those of the devil, and of the British agents. My children, your conduct has much alarmed the white settlers near you. They desire that you will send away those people; and if they wish to have the impostor with them, they can carry him. Let him go to the lakes; he can hear the British more distinctly."

After the delivery of Governor Harrison's message to the Shawanees, the prophet requested Connor to commit to writing the following reply to the governor: "Father-I am very sorry that you listen to the advice of bad birds. You have impeached me with having correspondence with the British, and with calling and sending for the Indians from the most distant parts of the country, to listen to a fool, that speaks not the words of the Great Spirit, but the words of the devil. Father, those impeachments I deny, and say they are not true. I never had a word with the British, and I never sent for any Indians. They came here themselves, to listen, and hear the words of the Great Spirit."

« ZurückWeiter »