Gods of Prophetstown: The Battle of Tippecanoe and the Holy War for the American Frontier

The Gods Of Prophetstown

November 7, 2011, marked the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Tippecanoe, near the confluence of the Wabash and Tippecanoe Rivers in the former Indiana Territory. William Henry Harrison, the territorial governor, commanded the U.S. forces, while the Indian opposition was led by Tenskwatawa, a Shawnee religious leader and younger brother of the famous Tecumseh. Touted as a great American victory, the actual result of the battle was debatable: the Indians retreated and Harrison burned their city of Prophetstown; but the U.S. forces suffered severe casualties and the Shawnee quickly rebuilt Prophetstown, earning many new adherents from other tribes. Ultimately, the Tippecanoe skirmish would become a precipitating event of the War of 1812, and the slogan ââ?¬Å"Tippecanoe and Tyler tooââ?¬Â? would be coined to propel Harrison to a presidency of one month, ending with his death.

Timed to coincide with the anniversary of the battle, Adam Jortner�s new and first book, The Gods of Prophetstown: The Battle of Tippecanoe and the Holy War for the American Frontier, examines the now legendary events as a dual biography of Harrison and Tenskwatawa combined with a history of the battle. But Jortner, who teaches history at Auburn University, has a deeper vision for the book: to show that religion constitutes an independent moving force in life rather than only an adjunct to politics. To do so, he draws on the events and circumstances around Tippecanoe and its leaders to present a lengthy analysis of Indian and non-Indian religious and revival movements in early America. The result is a sometimes diffuse and confusing work with a too wide-reaching scope.

Beginning in the middle of the story in 1806, Jortner tells of Tenskwatawa, an undistinguished alcoholic deemed a Prophet by the tribe under questionable circumstances, who taught that the Indians should give up alcohol and unite with other Indians to live separately from whites and, thereby, thwart the American government�s Indian policy of divide and conquer. By contrast, Harrison is depicted as a product of Enlightenment deism who believed in reason, in a creator deity who does not become involved in individual human affairs, and in a vague sense of providence, which favored the Americans and Western culture.

When Tenskwatawa used his religious primacy in the tribe to hunt and execute ââ?¬Å"witchesââ?¬Â? among the Shawnee, territorial governor Harrison seized an opening to challenge the Prophet to establish his credentials by ââ?¬Å"stopping the sunââ?¬Â? or performing a similar miracle. Within days of Harrisonââ?¬â?¢s challenge, a solar eclipse took place and Tenskwatawa claimed the credit. It is at this point that the book begins to perplex. Much of Jortnerââ?¬â?¢s discussion of this event is confusing as he refuses to endorse the obvious naturalistic explanations for Harrisonââ?¬â?¢s taunt and the subsequent eclipse. More insightful is his stating simply that the point of the story is that people believed the Prophet, as they often believe other religious leaders, regardless of the alleged character of the events, which form the basis of the belief.

In 1808, the Prophet and the Shawnee Tribe moved to Indiana and established a community known as Prophetstown, resisting the U.S. government�s attempt to gain and implement increasing land cessions from the Indians. After a series of tense meetings between the Prophet, Tecumseh and Harrison, Harrison sought and received approval from a reluctant Secretary of State to use force against the Indians on the probably specious grounds that Britain was supporting the tribal resistance. Harrison then undertook a lengthy march to Prophetstown, which the Indians were able to observe and monitor. On the eve of the battle, peace negotiations were scheduled, but a battle ensued nonetheless. While it remains unclear which side initiated the fighting, in the later 1840 presidential campaign Harrison claimed credit for a great victory and assumed the mantle of a hero. Doubts about the result of the battle and about the effectiveness of Harrison�s leadership were widespread at the time and have persisted and grown ever since.

Jortner aptly concludes that the Battle of Tippecanoe proved disastrous for both sides and points out that the War of 1812, which followed the battle, was a product of American expansionism and hubris from which the United States was fortunate to escape with no loss of territory. Jortner is less than convincing in arguing that the War of 1812 was a ââ?¬Å"holy warââ?¬Â? as waged by the United States, followed by a wave of awakenings that changed the religious character of the young republic from the deism of the Revolutionary generation to 19th-century evangelical Christianity. This observation does not appear to advance Jortnerââ?¬â?¢s argument on what he sees as the broad, independent role of religion in public life. Furthermore, Jortner is unconvincing in his attempt to tie in religious revivalism with the result of the War of 1812.

Extending his multifocal reach even further, Jortner adds an argument for the importance of contingency in the course of human events. Though tempting to assume the inevitability of American triumphalism, the author maintains in this historical sequence, for example, that with small changes at critical moments by individuals, the Indians might well have succeeded in establishing a buffer state between the United States and Canada. The many different claims Jortner makes in this book, together with its unfocused organization, make this study diffuse and not entirely successful.

The Gods of Prophetstown covers a period of history that most Americans do not know well. The War of 1812 remains the least understood of our countryâ��s wars. A chronology would be useful in helping readers follow the events recounted in this book. Yet, with its difficulties, Jortnerâ��s book still offers a provocative approach to Americanâ�"Indian relationships in the early years of the United States, one that might open the door for additional thoughtful, novel study.

This review was originally published in the Washington Independent Review of Books, January 27. 2012.

Robin Friedman