The Battle
Of Tippecanoe
November 7, 1811
Following the signing of the Treaty of Greenville in summer 1795, relative
peace prevailed between the white settlers and the natives of the Old Northwest.
The Washington and Adams administrations at least paid lip service to the
terms of the treaty, but Thomas Jefferson (the great agrarian philosopher)
sought additional lands for American farmers through a series of purchases
from the tribes. Not all the frontiersmen bothered with the niceties of treaties
and simply occupied Indian lands illegally.
Not without reason, resentment among the tribes ran high. In 1808, Tecumseh,
a Shawnee chieftain, and his brother Tenskwatawa (known to the Americans as
The Prophet) launched a reform movement among their people. They attempted
to end the sale of additional lands to the whites and to resist alcohol and
other troublesome temptations of the competing culture.
A new native settlement was built at the confluence of the Wabash and Tippecanoe
rivers (north of present-day Lafayette, Indiana) and became known as Prophet’s
Town. The village became the focal point of Tecumseh’s effort to rally
the tribes east of the Mississippi River in the hope of halting the spread
of white settlements.
William Henry Harrison was governor of the Indiana Territory and superintendent
of the Northwest Indians. Fearing the growing strength of Tecumseh’s
confederacy, Harrison decided to strike quickly.
He marched an army of 1,100 men along the Wabash toward Prophet’s Town.
Tecumseh was temporarily out of the area on a recruiting venture among the
Creeks in the south, but his brother prepared the men for battle with fiery
oratory — including promises that they could not be harmed by the white
men’s bullets.
Shortly before dawn on November 7, 1811, Harrison’s soldiers were attacked.
After a two-hour battle, the natives were forced to flee and their village
— the gathering spot of the confederacy — was destroyed. Some
military historians regard the Battle of Tippecanoe as a draw, but note that
it held important ramifications:
• The safety of the white settlements in the Indiana Territory became
markedly improved.
• The Prophet was discredited as a leader because of his inability to
ensure the promised invincibility from the opponents' bullets and also because
he had violated Tecumseh's earlier counsel to hold off any armed confrontation
until his return.
• The confederation of the eastern tribes disintegrated.
• The bitterly disappointed Tecumseh, who did not return to Indiana
for another three months, remained an implacable foe of the American settlers.
He would later become allied with the British and participate in the War of
1812.
• William Henry Harrison emerged with a reputation as the hero of Tippecanoe,
an image that he would use to his political advantage in later years.