Resistance and War
In the years since the Prophet’s vision, Tenskwatawa’s following had grown so much that they moved once more, setting up Prophetstown at the mouth of the Tippecanoe River. This success was not to last and Prophetstown experienced a very harsh winter in 1810-11. While Tecumseh was away seeking more followers, Tenskwatawa lost his authority as leader after a badly mismanaged military defeat at the Battle of Tippecanoe in November 1811. By June of 1812 Tecumseh had managed to bring the confederation back to a strength approaching levels the year before. With Tecumseh as leader, the confederacy focused on stopping American expansion and regaining their homelands. Both the Americans and the British preferred Tecumseh’s military-style leadership to the Prophet’s Native revivalism as it was closer to their way of thinking.
As tensions mounted between America and Britain, conflict seemed unavoidable. Though the War of 1812 might have seemed to the Shawnee like yet another conflict amongst newcomers, for the colonizers it was a major defining point in British-American relations. Once again the English looked to Indigenous populations for help on the battlefield. Tecumseh’s resistance movement had drawn great support from Aboriginal groups from north of the Ohio River and from the Great Lakes area including Ojibwas, Ottawas, Potawatomis, Shawnees, Winnebagos, and Kickapoos. Wyandots, Delawares, Miamis, Menominees and Piankeshaws also joined in. Often the majority of support came from younger members of these groups who rejected the land concessions made by the older generations. Though many Aboriginal groups were reluctant to join the British who had previously betrayed them, the Americans were a more immediate threat. In the summer of 1812, the Native confederacy marched north to meet their allies.
The War of 1812 began with victories for the British and the confederacy, but after several half-hearted attacks and facing dwindling supplies, General Henry Procter ordered a British retreat to the northeast and Tecumseh’s warriors had little choice but to follow. With only a fraction of their Aboriginal allies and a demoralized British troop, the coalition was easily defeated by the Americans at the Battle of the Thames. Tecumseh was mortally wounded in battle that day in October, 1813, and with his death so too died his vision for an organized pan-Aboriginal resistance to American expansion. After an unsuccessful recruiting attempt by the British, those few warriors remaining soon signed a truce with the Americans. Though fighting between Americans and the British continued for more than a year, by the signing of the Treaty of Ghent on December 24 1814, the Americans had neither lost nor gained land. Aboriginal populations, on the other hand, would lose much in the following century.