The gods of Prophetstown : the Battle of Tippecanoe and the holy war for the American frontier / Adam Jortner.

ISBN:

9780199909599

Title:

Author:

Jortner, Adam Joseph.

Personal Author:

Jortner, Adam Joseph.

Publication Information:

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 310 pages) : illustrations, map

Contents:

Prologue: The eclipse -- Thrown away -- Master of life -- Primogeniture -- Defeat -- The careerist -- Grouseland -- Prophecy -- Witchcraft -- Conspiracies -- Greenville -- The nation of Prophetstown -- The bargain -- The gathering -- Fiasco -- "A war of extirpation" -- Epilogue: The funeral.

Local Note:

eBooks on EBSCOhost

Personal Subject:

Tenskwatawa, Shawnee Prophet.

Harrison, William Henry, 1773-1841.

Harrison, William Henry, 1773-1841 (OCoLC)fst00166593

Tenskwatawa, Shawnee Prophet. (OCoLC)fst00112723

Conference Subject:

Tippecanoe, Battle of (Indiana : 1811) (OCoLC)fst01404270

Subject Term:

Tippecanoe, Battle of, Ind., 1811.

Shawnee Indians -- Biography.

Governors -- Indiana -- Biography.

Indians of North America -- Wars -- 1750-1815.

War -- Religious aspects -- History -- 19th century.

Frontier and pioneer life -- United States.

Harrison, William Henry, 1773-1841.

Indiana -- History -- 19th century.

Tenskwatawa, Shawnee Prophet.

United States -- Territorial expansion.

History.

HISTORY -- United States -- 19th Century.

Frontier and pioneer life. (OCoLC)fst00935370

Governors. (OCoLC)fst00945704

Indians of North America -- Wars. (OCoLC)fst00969954

Shawnee Indians. (OCoLC)fst01115386

Territorial expansion. (OCoLC)fst01355135

War -- Religious aspects. (OCoLC)fst01170374

Geographic Term:

Indiana -- History -- 19th century.

United States -- Territorial expansion.

Indiana. (OCoLC)fst01204604

United States. (OCoLC)fst01204155

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

http://ezproxy.angliss.edu.au/login?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&AN=405927

Publication Date:

2012

Publication Information:

Available:*

Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
973.5 23	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ONLINE	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

It began with an eclipse. In 1806, the Shawnee leader Tenskwatawa ("The Open Door") declared himself to be in direct contact with the Master of Life, and therefore, the supreme religious authority for all Native Americans. Those who disbelieved him, he warned, "would see darkness come over the sun." William Henry Harrison, governor of the Indiana Territory and future American president, scoffed at Tenskwatawa. If he was truly a prophet, Harrison taunted, let him perform a miracle. And Tenskwatawa did just that, making the sun go dark at midday. In The Gods of Prophetstown, Adam Jortner provides a gripping account of the conflict between Tenskwatawa and Harrison, who finally collided in 1811 at a place called Tippecanoe. Though largely forgotten today, their rivalry determined the future of westward expansion and shaped the War of 1812. Jortner weaves together dual biographies of the opposing leaders. In the five years between the eclipse and the battle, Tenskwatawa used his spiritual leadership to forge a political pseudo-state with his brother Tecumseh. Harrison, meanwhile, built a power base in Indiana, rigging elections and maneuvering for higher position. Rejecting received wisdom, Jortner sees nothing as preordained-Native Americans were not inexorably falling toward dispossession and destruction. Deeply rooting his account in a generation of scholarship that has revolutionized Indian history, Jortner places the religious dimension of the struggle at the fore, recreating the spiritual landscapes trod by each side. The climactic battle, he writes, was as much a clash of gods as of men.Written with profound insight and narrative verve, The Gods of Prophetstown recaptures a forgotten turning point in American history in time for the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Tippecanoe.

Author Notes

Adam Jortner teaches history at Auburn University. His essays have appeared in The Journal of the Early Republic and Early American Studies.

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Auburn University historian Jortner offers a stimulating perspective on the frontier war that culminated in 1811 against the Shawnee at Tippecanoe. His central Native American protagonist is Tecumseh's brother Tenskwatawa-"the Prophet." He rose to prominence among the Shawnee preaching "penance and sanctification" by returning to traditional ways. He purportedly "made the sun go dark at midday" in response to a taunting challenge issued by William Henry Harrison, territorial governor of Indiana (and future American president). How the prophet gained foreknowledge of a solar eclipse is less important to Jortner than the event's consequences. To the peoples of the Ohio frontier, the eclipse was a spiritual sign placing their resistance to white encroachment in a context of moral and social reform. That in turn presented a threat to Harrison, who had his own sense of a providential mission to fulfill America's destiny by expanding its power. Jortner makes a solid case that the outcome was not inevitable. The battle of Tippecanoe was indecisive; but Harrison's spin machine transformed it into a triumph of civilization over superstition. And Jortner's hypothesis that a different outcome could have led to an Indian state, underwritten by British Canada and shaped by the Prophet's doctrines, is a provocative might-have-been. Maps. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Choice Review

This occasionally contentious book by Auburn Univ. historian Jortner analyzes American Indian conflicts in the Ohio Valley from Independence through the War of 1812. As the title suggests, the author presents the events as a "holy war" based on conflicting religious beliefs that separated the tribes in the region and the invading pioneers. That view goes beyond Alfred Cave's Prophets of the Great Spirit (CH, May'07, 44-5227) and Robert Owens's Mr. Jefferson's Hammer (CH, Aug'08, 45-6994) to insist that the central events represented a new framework. In Jortner's view, the conflict resulted from Indian efforts to create an empire, not the last-ditch acts of desperation by a defeated people. He uses partially intertwined biographies of the Shawnee Prophet Tenskwatawa and Indiana governor William Henry Harrison to illustrate the religious underpinnings of the situation. The governor assumed that divine providence ensured US victory, while the Prophet's religious teachings provided assurances of Native triumph. These opposing views left no room for compromise or peace. This readable narrative uses the author's wide knowledge of events during the early republic as a base to present an interesting analysis that gives religious motivation more emphasis than have most other scholarly accounts. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries. R. L. Nichols emeritus, University of Arizona

Library Journal Review

Through a joint biography of Tenskwatawa, the Shawnee Prophet, and William Henry Harrison, governor of the Indiana Territory, Jortner (history, Auburn Univ.) contextualizes the Battle of Tippecanoe within both the Indian wars of the Old Northwest and the War of 1812. The work's strength is that the author painstakingly demonstrates that Tenskwatawa was a true religious prophet and not a charlatan who used scientific knowledge gleaned from Euro-Americans to dupe his followers, as many historians have alleged. Because of the fervor of Tenskwatawa's religious adherents and the military acumen of Tenskwatawa's brother, Tecumseh, Jortner persuasively argues that the history of the United States would have been very different if Harrison had not taken advantage of Tecumseh's absence from Prophetstown and goaded Tenskwatawa into battle. The Battle of Tippecanoe marked the effective end of Tecumseh's multitribal confederacy and eventually justified Harrison's election to the presidency of the United States. VERDICT This highly recommended monograph is appropriate for academic audiences and should be read alongside Robert M. Owens's Mr. Jefferson's Hammer: William Henry Harrison and the Origins of American Indian Policy.-John Burch, Campbellsville Univ. Lib., KY (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.