Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Master's Theses Graduate College 8-1997 The Spirit of the Great Lakes Native Confederacy, 1805-1813 Timothy D. Willig Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Willig, Timothy D., "The Spirit of the Great Lakes Native Confederacy, 1805-1813" (1997). Master's Theses. 3893. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/3893 This Masters Thesis-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate College at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE SPIRIT OF THE GREAT LAKES NATIVE CONFEDERACY, 1805-1813 by Timothy D. Willig A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Department of History Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, Michigan August 1997 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am indebted to several people for helping to make this thesis a reality. First, I am grateful to the members of my committee, Dr. Donald Fixico, Dr. Benjamin Wilson, and Dr. Linda Borish. Not only has this group doubled as my M.A. exam committee, but seven of the courses I have taken at Western Michigan University were taught by members of this illustrious group. Further­ more, they have cheerfully written a combined amount of nearly 20 references for me this past two and-a-half years --even when I dropped the requests on their door­ steps as they vainly attempted to escape for the holi­ days. Together, this group has accomplished the monumen­ tal task of preparing a former math and physics student for doctoral work in history! Second, I would like to thank Mrs. Elizabeth Rieth, a personal friend from my hometown of Goshen, Indiana, where her son John and I were high school cronies and have been best friends ever since. Having known me since my youth, Mrs. Rieth has witnessed many changes in my life as my goals and pursuits have shifted several times. Despite these vicissitudes she has graciously and unhesi­ tatingly assisted me financially. Without her support, I ll Acknowledgernents--Continued could never have begun graduate school. Next, I want to recognize the individuals at the various libraries and archival institutions to whom I owe thanks. At Fort Malden in Arnherstpurg, Ontario, it was a pleasure to work with Bob Garcia, as he located several sources pertinent to my topic. His service is greatly appreciated, and his insight was invaluable as we mulled over a heap of correspondence by British officers. I am grateful to the staff at the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan, specifically Torn Hyry, Karen Jania, and Greg Kinney. Also with the University of Michigan, Rob Cox and John Harriman at the Clements Historical Library accommodated me in every way as they allowed me virtually unlimited access to the numerous fragile documents in their Lewis Cass Collection. I also owe thanks to Minnie Headdy at the Glenn Black Laboratory of Archaeology at Indiana University. Finally, I am indebted to some of my own colleagues and friends here at Western Michigan. Sharon Carlson and her staff at the University Archives have assisted me not merely on this thesis, but also on many of my other projects during my years as a graduate student at Western. Lastly, I am grateful to my fellow graduate student Eric Owen, whose lll Acknowledgements--Continued word-processing expertise put the finishing touches on this project. I am also thankful for my family's support and encouragement. Notwithstanding the fact that I was several years out of college and sought to enter a field in which I possessed little formal training, not once did my parents or siblings attempt to dissuade me from start­ ing graduate school. My brother, perhaps without realiz­ ing it, exhibited the greatest confidence in me by fre­ quently commenting that I should have gone to Cambridge. Finally, I thank the Lord, who, in His infinite wisdom and grace, permitted me to attend graduate school and attain a Master's degree at this not-so-young age. After working in another field for several years, I had nearly given up on my pursuits towards a career in histo­ ry when He made it possible for me to study at Western Michigan and to write this thesis on my favorite subject. Timothy D. Willig iv THE SPIRIT OF THE GREAT LAKES NATIVE CONFEDERACY, 1805-1813 Timothy D. Willig, M.A. Western Michigan University,_ 1997 Native American resistance to American expansion during the War of 1812 occurred in the wake of a signifi­ cant spiritual revitalization movement in the Native community. The extent to which this spiritual movement prompted Native resistance has never been fully explored or developed. Traditional theories maintain that once the revitalization ended, a secular resistance movement began -one that was fueled by British support. The objective in this thesis is not only to establish the connection between the Natives' religion and their ef­ forts to resist, but it is also to determine what factors initially gave rise to the revitalization movement. My findings indicate that no dichotomy existed between the Indians' spiritual goals and their war ef­ fort. Moreover, this revitalization movement came about from Native opposition to the spiritual teachings of white missionaries. The revitalization movement provided the basis for the pan-Indian alliance, and the confedera­ cy viewed the War of 1812 as a holy war, one fought for spiritual goals and under supernatural guidance. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS................................. ii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 1 II. SPIRITUAL MOVEMENTS ON THE WHITE RIVER.... 23 III. PROPHETSTOWN OF THE WABASH................ 52 IV. THE SPIRITUALITY OF TECUMSEH AND HIS WAR LEADERS................................... 83 V. PROLOGUE TO TECUMSEH AND THE PROPHET...... 128 BIBLIOGRAPHY. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 14 7 V CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The day before Labor Day in 1992, my parents and I left Crawfordsville, Indiana after our softball team suffered an earlier-than-expected elimination. As we made our way back to Goshen, I convinced them that the best consolation for an early defeat was to stop at the Tippecanoe Battlefield, just Northeast of Lafayette. Though I had visited the sacred site on three previous occasions, it was a first-time experience for my parents. Towards the end of our visit, as my morn searched through the limitless treasures of the gift shop, my dad and I waited outside on a park bench, near the edge of what had been the perimeter of the American army's camp­ site on the night of November 6, 1811. After several moments of reflective thought, my dad marvelled at the irony of history. Where an advanced guard of Native warriors once crawled through the cold and wet grass on that November night, now stood a store in which books, toys, and gifts were sold. No book or souvenir could ever adequately convey an understanding of the despera­ tion felt by the Indians that night. Crawling through the grass on a suicide mission as the Indians' "forlorn 1 2 hope," these warriors dutifully obeyed their leader, the Shawnee Prophet, who told them that the Great Manitou, their Supreme Being, would only grant victory if they 1 killed the American leader at the battle's outset. Like my dad on that day at Tippecanoe, I often ponder the lives, beliefs, and circumstances of the indigenous peoples who once lived in the Great Lakes region and Wabash River valley. How did they respond to the drastic changes brought by the whites during the period of their own territorial dispossession, 1750-1840? Did the Natives generally try to accept the changes, or did this upheaval tend to cause the majority of Natives to resist? Of those who resisted, how did they attempt to preserve their cultures? Regardless of how they opposed the whites, resis­ tance required quick action; the rate at which white 1 The Algonquin-speaking nations referred to the deities in their pantheon as "manitous." Their expres­ sion for the Supreme Being include: "Master of Life," "Great Spirit" (or "Great Mani tau") , and "Creator." The Creeks (Muscogees) called this God the "Maker of Breath." These expressions all refer to the most high God, and I have interchangeably used these terms throughout this writing. Also, the Shawnees (meaning "southerners") lived in the Ohio and Cumberland Valleys about 1650 but were driven into South Carolina, Georgia, and Illinois by Iroquois incursions during the latter seventeenth cen­ tury. In the early eighteenth century the Shawnee people moved into western Pennsylvania before being forced into Ohio by white settlers. For the best ethnography on the Shawnees, see James H. Howard, Shawnee' The Ceremonial­ ism of a Native American Tribe and its Cultural Back­ ground (Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 1981). 3 culture swept away the Natives and their way of life is staggering. In a couple of decades the Indians of the Old Northwest experienced changes that reduced them from 2 a state of dominance to a near-extinct civilization. On November 4, 1791, near the headwaters of the Wabash River (present-day western Ohio), the Miami war leader Little Turtle and his army of inter-tribal confederated warriors annihilated an American regiment commanded by Arthur St. Clair, giving the young nation its worst drubbing ever at the hands of the Indians (before or since). This great- est of Indian victories claimed the lives of 634 American men and women and wounded a couple of hundred more -only 3 a few dozen Americans emerged unscathed. Nearly 20 years to the day after St.