Native
American Heritage Month Map: Tecumseh
Was Here
On
November 6, 1811, Governor William Henry Harrison of the Indiana Territory led
American forces to the Native American village of Prophetstown, near what is
now Battle Ground, Indiana. On November
7, Shawnee warriors attacked Harrison’s army.
This “Battle of Tippecanoe” was won by the American forces after the
warriors ran out of ammunition. And
Harrison’s men destroyed the abandoned village the next day.
Tenskwatawa,
“the Prophet,” was the spiritual leader of the Shawnee. His brother, Tecumseh, emerged as the
military and political leader. Tecumseh
was recruiting warriors from other tribes to form a confederacy at the time of
the battle. He had urged his brother to
wait for any military action.
But when the
U.S. declared war on Great Britain in the War of 1812, Tecumseh’s confederacy
had finally been organized with the help of British allies. Tecumseh’s warriors composed nearly half of
the forces that captured Detroit from the U.S. during the war. But when Tecumseh was killed at the Battle of
the Thames in Canada, his confederacy weakened and finally disintegrated.
The Ball
State University Libraries GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) is
commemorating Native American Heritage Month by featuring a map about the life
of Tecumseh as the “Map of the Month.”
The map, Tecumseh Was Here, includes
important places in the life of the Shawnee leader, including his probable
birthplace in Ohio. Tetepachsit and
Utenink were Native American villages near modern-day Muncie where Tecumseh was
known to live (above, click to enlarge).
The map
will be displayed in the front windows of the GRMC through the month of
November. The GRMC also provides a guide
to other notable Native American cartographic resources for research and
learning.
For more
information, please contact the GRMC at 765-285-1097.
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