Tenskwatawa, a name that resonates through the annals of Native American history, was more than just the brother of the famed Tecumseh. He carved his own legacy as a powerful medicine man and spiritual leader, revered and feared as the Shawnee Prophet. Born Lalawethika, a name meaning "He Who Makes a Loud Noise," reflecting his youthful boastfulness, he underwent a profound transformation that led him to embrace the mantle of Tenskwatawa, signifying "The Open Door." This new appellation symbolized his self-proclaimed role as a conduit to the divine, a guide leading his people toward salvation.
The decade following the Treaty of Greenville proved to be a challenging period for the maturing Lalawethika. Shedding the carefree skin of childhood, he found himself thrust into the responsibilities of adulthood. He took a wife, and soon his family grew, demanding sustenance and support. Unfortunately, Lalawethika was ill-equipped to meet these demands. His attempts at hunting were largely unsuccessful, the deer herds dwindling, leaving him frequently returning to his lodge empty-handed. Frustration gnawed at him, and he sought solace in the whiskey keg, a path that only served to exacerbate his problems and anger his wife.
Seeking a change of scenery, Lalawethika settled on the White River, where he encountered Penagashea, an elder Shawnee revered as a prophet and medicine man. Initially, Penagashea harbored a dislike for the young, alcoholic braggart. However, over time, an unlikely friendship blossomed between the two men. Although Lalawethika had not experienced any revelatory visions, Penagashea shared his knowledge of medicine and traditional practices with him, mentoring the younger man in the ways of healing.
In 1804, Penagashea passed away, leaving a void in the community. Lalawethika, driven by ambition and a desire to fill the elder’s shoes, attempted to take his place as the village’s medicine man, but his efforts met with limited success. When illness, likely brought by the white settlers, swept through the Shawnee village in early 1805, Lalawethika’s attempts to heal his people were met with mixed results. While some who received his herbs and incantations recovered, many did not. The community began to question whether a man who had so often disregarded the sacred Shawnee laws could truly wear the mantle of healer or prophet.
The winter of 1804-05 etched itself into the collective memory of the Shawnee as a time of relentless hardship. The icy nights and overcast days were compounded by the ravages of a nameless disease, likely influenza, which swept through their community in February and March. The illness claimed the lives of the old and weak, and even the strongest warriors were left debilitated.
By early April, the epidemic had finally run its course, and the afternoon sunshine offered a glimmer of hope that spring was on the horizon. In the Shawnee village, a heavyset man of thirty years, Lalawethika, sat cross-legged before the hearth of his wegiwa (a traditional dwelling), a blanket wrapped around his shoulders against the evening chill. He reflected on his recent failures to heal his ailing kinsmen. He was acutely aware of the low regard in which he was held by many in the tribe. His boastfulness had earned him the unflattering nickname "Lalawethika," "He Who Makes a Loud Noise," a moniker he deeply resented.
Lost in his thoughts, Lalawethika reached into the fire to light the tobacco in his long-stemmed pipe. But as he raised the pipe to his lips, he gasped, dropped the blazing twig, and toppled over onto his side. His wife, believing him to be gravely ill, fled the lodge to seek help from their neighbors. Lalawethika lay motionless by the fire, appearing lifeless.
When his wife and neighbors rushed back into the wegiwa, they found him still prostrate before the fire. Despite his wife’s desperate attempts to rouse him, he remained unresponsive. The tribesmen rolled him onto his back, but his eyes remained closed, and he appeared not to be breathing. Convinced that he was dead, his neighbors led his grieving wife away and began making preparations to wash the body in anticipation of the traditional two-day mourning period before burial. But before the funeral arrangements could be completed, the assembled Indians were astonished as the supposedly dead Lalawethika stirred, then awakened. Dazed but undeniably alive, he began to recount a strange and transformative experience.
Lalawethika spoke of death, heaven, and resurrection. He claimed that the Master of Life had dispatched two handsome young men to carry his soul into the spirit world, where he was shown both the past and the future. Although the Master of Life did not permit him to enter heaven, he was granted a glimpse of paradise. He described it as "a rich, fertile country, abounding in game, fish, pleasant hunting grounds and fine corn fields," a realm where the spirits of virtuous Shawnees could flourish, "pursuing the same course of life which characterized them here. They [could] plant, or hunt, [or] play at their usual games and in all things [could remain] unchanged."
However, not all Shawnee spirits were destined for immediate paradise. The souls of sinful tribesmen also followed the road toward heaven, but after catching a glimpse of the promised land, they were forced to turn away and enter a large lodge where an enormous fire burned eternally. Here, sinners were subjected to fiery torment commensurate with their wickedness. The most depraved were reduced to ashes. Unrepentant drunkards were forced to swallow molten lead until flames erupted from their mouths and nostrils. Lesser offenders had their limbs burned, but all evildoers were compelled to endure their suffering until they had fully atoned for their sins. Only then would they be permitted to enter heaven, but they would never share in the full measure of joy enjoyed by more virtuous tribesmen.
As he concluded his story, Lalawethika began to weep and tremble, overwhelmed by emotion. He vowed to renounce his sinful ways and never again partake of the white man’s whiskey. He was a changed man, no longer the drunken braggart known as Lalawethika. Henceforth, he would be called Tenskwatawa, "The Open Door," a name that symbolized his new role as a holy man, destined to lead his people down the path toward salvation. While some in his audience remained skeptical, many others were convinced of his sincerity and readily embraced the doctrines of the newly christened prophet.
In the months that followed, Tenskwatawa experienced further visions, elaborating on his doctrine of Indian deliverance. Shawnees, demoralized by the sweeping changes occurring around them, flocked to the new messiah, seeking stability in a world of chaos. The Shawnee social and political systems were ill-equipped to cope with the encroaching frontier, and they grasped at the hope that the Master of Life had provided Tenskwatawa with a new faith to revitalize his chosen people.
During the summer of 1805, Moravian missionaries in eastern Indiana reported a decline in their congregations as a renewed "Heathenism" spread among the nearby Indians. Meanwhile, Tenskwatawa and his followers left the White River to establish a new village near Greenville, in western Ohio.
In late November 1805, the Shawnee holy man met with delegations of Shawnees, Ottawas, Wyandots, and Senecas at Wapakoneta, on the Auglaize River, where he expounded on his religion at length. Since his initial vision in April, several similar experiences had provided him with additional insights, which he incorporated into a well-defined pattern of religious and social doctrines. Much of the Prophet’s dogma centered on the decline of traditional moral values among the Shawnees and neighboring tribes.
Declaring that he "was particularly appointed to the office by the Great Spirit," Tenskwatawa asserted that his "sole object was to reclaim the Indians from bad habits and to cause them to live in peace with all mankind." First and foremost, he denounced the consumption of alcohol. Admitting that he had once been a drunkard himself, he now claimed to be cured and vowed never again to partake of the white man’s firewater. He warned the tribesmen that frontier whiskey "was poison and accursed" and described in vivid detail the special tortures awaiting the souls of unrepentant alcoholics. Moved by his exhortations, many in the audience were alarmed and vowed to follow his example.
Tenskwatawa also condemned the violence that had permeated tribal society. He instructed his listeners to treat tribal elders with respect and to provide for kinsmen who were injured, diseased, or incapable of caring for themselves. He admonished his followers to refrain from intertribal violence, urging warriors to treat each other as brothers, cease their quarreling, and never steal the belongings of fellow tribesmen. They must remain truthful and not strike their wives or children. Only if a married woman behaved so badly that she brought disrespect to her husband could the man "punish her with a rod," but afterward "both husband and wife were to look each other in the face and laugh and bear no ill will to each other for what had passed."
Concerned about sexual promiscuity, the Prophet warned Shawnee women to remain faithful to their husbands and decreed that warriors were not "to be running after women; if a man was single let him take a wife." He also advised against polygamous marriages, stating that in the future warriors were only to have one wife. Those Shawnees currently married to more than one woman "might keep them," but they should realize that such a union displeased the Master of Life.
In contrast, Tenskwatawa assured his followers that the Master of Life favored the performance of certain rituals and ceremonies. He instructed them to extinguish the fires in their lodges and light new ones, kindled in the traditional manner, without using the white man’s flint and steel. "The fire must never go out…Summer and winter, day and night, in the storm or when it is calm, you must remember that the life in your body, and the fire in your lodge are the same and of the same date. If you suffer your fire to be extinguished, at that moment your life will be at its end."
The Prophet also denounced many of the traditional tribal dances as corrupt, suggesting new ones that would please the Master of Life and bring joy to the dancers. Moreover, Tenskwatawa instructed his listeners to pray to the Master of Life both morning and evening, asking that the earth be fruitful, the streams abound in fish, and the forest be full of game. To assist his followers with their prayers, he provided them with prayer sticks inscribed with symbols that epitomized the new faith. If the Indians were faithful, the Master of Life would smile upon them and they would prosper.
Especially suspect were traditional shamans and their "juggleries." Those medicine men who might oppose Tenskwatawa‘s new doctrines were described as misguided fools or false prophets, destined for unhappiness. To eradicate any vestige of the corrupt old ways, the Prophet ordered his followers to throw away their medicine bundles. Although these parcels contained items traditionally sacred to individual Shawnees, Tenskwatawa declared that this medicine "which has been good in its time, had lost its efficacy; that it had become vitiated through age." Those who abandoned their bundles would eventually "find [their] children or friends that have long been dead restored to life."
Although the Prophet’s new creed attacked some facets of traditional Shawnee culture, it sought to revitalize others. Indeed, much of Tenskwatawa‘s preaching was nativistic in tone and content. If shamans and medicine bundles were forbidden, the Shawnees were encouraged to return to many practices followed by their ancestors.
Tenskwatawa urged them to renounce their desire to accumulate property and to return to the communal life of the past. Those who accumulated "wealth and ornaments" would "crumble into dust," but tribesmen who shared with their brothers, "when they die[d] [were] happy; and, when they arrive[d] in the land of the dead, [would] find their wigwam furnished with everything they had on earth."
The Shawnees and other Indians were also admonished to return to the food, implements, and dress of their ancestors. Although white men kept domestic animals such as cattle, sheep, or hogs, such meat was unclean and not to be consumed by Indians. Even dogs were suspect, as he advised his followers that they were evil creatures and should be destroyed. In contrast, the Master of Life had given the tribesmen "the Deer, the Bear, and all wild animals, and the Fish that swim in the river." These species would provide meat for the Shawnee cooking pots. Neither were the Indians "on any account, to eat Bread. It is the food of the whites." Instead, the tribesmen were to cultivate corn, beans, and other crops raised by their fathers, and to gather maple syrup, a special food favored by both the Master of Life and Tenskwatawa.
Similarly, the Prophet instructed his followers to relinquish the white man’s technology. Although guns might be used for self-defense, warriors were to hunt with bows and arrows. Stone and wood implements should replace metal ones, and the tribesmen were to discard all items of European or American clothing. "You must not dress like the White man or wear hats like them…And when the weather is not severe, you must go naked excepting the breach cloth, and when you are clothed, it must be in skins or leather of your own Dressing." Moreover, the warriors were ordered to shave their heads, leaving only the scalp lock worn in the past.