Tenskwatawa | |
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| Born | January 1775 Ohio, US |
| Died | November 1836 Argentine, Kansas, US |
| Resting place | Near White Feather Spring, Kansas City, Kansas, US |
| Nationality | Shawnee |
| Relatives | Tecumseh (brother) |
Tenskwatawa (/ˌtənskwɒtɒweɪ/; also called Tenskatawa, Tenskwatawah, Tensquatawa or Lalawethika) (January 1775 – November 1836) was a Native American religious and political leader of the Shawnee tribe, known as the Prophet or the Shawnee Prophet. He was a younger brother of Tecumseh, a leader of the Shawnee. In his early years Tenskwatawa was given the name Lalawethika ("He Makes a Loud Noise" or "The Noise Maker"), but he changed it around 1805 and transformed himself from a hapless, alcoholic youth into an influential spiritual leader. Tenskwatawa denounced the Americans, calling them the offspring of the Evil Spirit, and led a purification movement that promoted unity among the Indigenous peoples of North America, rejected acculturation to the American way of life, and encouraged his followers to pursue traditional ways.
In the early 1800s, Tenskwatawa formed a community with his followers near Greenville in western Ohio, and in 1808 he and Tecumseh established a village that the Americans called Prophetstown north of present-day Lafayette, Indiana. At Prophetstown, the brothers' pan-American Indian resistance movement increased to include thousands of followers, and Tenskwatawa provided the spiritual foundation. Together, they mobilized the American Indians in the Northwest Territory to fight the Americans, and they remained resolute in their rejection of American authority and acculturation.
On November 7, 1811, while Tecumseh was away, Tenskwatawa ordered the pre-dawn attack on a hostile, encroaching American military force encamped near Prophetstown that initiated the Battle of Tippecanoe. The American Indians retreated after a two-hour engagement and abandoned Prophetstown, which the Americans burned to the ground. The battle did not end the American Indians' resistance against the United States, but the Prophet lost his influence, became an outcast, and moved to Canada during the War of 1812. After Tecumseh was killed at the Battle of the Thames in 1813, the American Indian resistance movement faltered and was eventually defeated. Tenskwatawa remained as an exile in Canada for nearly a decade. He returned to the United States in 1824 to assist the U.S. government with the Shawnee removal to reservation land in present-day Kansas. The aging Prophet arrived at the Shawnee reservation in 1828 and faded into obscurity. Tenskwatawa died at what is known as the Argentine district of present-day Kansas City, Kansas, in 1836.