The Open Door
While Tecumseh continued to prove himself a promising young warrior, a skilled hunter and an effective leader, his brother, then known as Lalawethicka, was far less successful. Lalawethicka was a rather brash, unpopular youth who showed little talent in battle or on the hunt. Eventually he became an alcoholic. In 1805, after a long spiritual vision, the young man awoke to say that the Master of Life had revealed the way out of misery. The key was to return to a traditional Aboriginal lifestyle and abandon vices of the white man such as alcohol. The young Shawnee renamed himself Tenskwatawa, or, “the Open Door.” He was also known simply as “the Prophet.”Though those who had known Lalawethicka were sceptical at first, his solutions were appealing to many, especially after the humiliating loss of large chunks of Ohio and Illinois at the Treaty of Greenville in 1795 and he soon had a large following. The Prophet and his followers set up base near Greenville and more Aboriginal peoples from throughout the modern-day Midwest travelled to hear Tenskwatawa speak. During this time, Tecumseh helped his brother run the growing religious community and spread his message in recruiting missions. On these trips, Tecumseh established himself as an excellent orator and diplomat, meeting with a wide variety of leaders, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous. Though there were several Aboriginal revivalist movements that century, timing and Tecumseh’s leadership role helped make Tenskwatawa’s movement very successful.