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black hawk & the legacies of violence in the great lakes region 143 The Late War Black Hawk and the Legacies of Violence in the Great Lakes Region John P. Bowes The Battle of Lake Erie, in which the American fleet led by Master Commandant Oliver Perry defeated the British naval force under the command of Captain Robert Barclay, lasted only a couple of hours on 10 September 1813. Yet it turned the tide of American fortunes in the western Great Lakes. American domination of the lake waters meant control over the transport of goods and people. The British force under Major General Henry Procter had to surrender its position at Detroit. They crossed the border to Amherstburg and in short order began a retreat up the Thames River through Upper Canada. General William Henry Harrison and his army were not very far behind. On 5 October, at the Battle of the Thames, Harrison and his men routed the British forces and secured their hold on the region. Much has been made of these events. Procter is lambasted for his retreat, and the Shawnee warrior and British ally Tecumseh is praised for his desire and willingness to make a stand, even though it meant his life.1 Tecumseh’s death on the Thames River appeared to end Indian resistance to American expansion in the Old Northwest. Yet the perceived threat of a pan-Indian uprising endured in the very person of his brother Tenskwatawa, also known as the Prophet. The Prophet had fled after the initial American charge at the Battle of the Thames and therefore did not learn of his brother’s death until later. He spent the remainder of the war trying to stay out of harm’s way, and at war’s end was living near Amherstburg on the Canadian side of the border. For the next five years, Tenskwatawa attempted to retain a measure of influence and made several weak attempts to revive what had been a powerful Indian confederacy. American officials at Detroit and British – 143 – 144 consequences officials across the river at Amherstburg did their best to keep track of his actions and those of his small band of followers. By the mid-1820s, however, the Shawnee Prophet had become relatively harmless in the eyes of American officials like the governor of the Michigan Territory, Lewis Cass. The aging visionary no longer had the religious power or authority to influence or attract Indians in the region.2 Yet even Tenskwatawa’s weakened influence could not erase the memory of a British-Indian alliance, and, as evidenced by events surrounding the Black Hawk War, the strength of that ongoing concern endured into the early 1830s. Despite a host of factors leading to the outbreak of violence in 1832, American citizens and officials in the Old Northwest Territory could not free themselves fromtheassumptionofBritishinvolvement.AtthecentersofpowerinLondon andWashington,BritishandAmericanofficialsmayhavedistancedthemselves fromtalkofBritishinterferenceinIndianaffairsinthedecadesaftertheWarof 1812,butthis didnot alter regional prejudices.Consequently,American agents and residents placed any and all Indian activity in the western Great Lakes in the 1830s within a framework that had existed for decades.3 From the perspective of American officials and citizens in the early republic, Indians often worked within the context of a British alliance or a pan-Indian confederacy to undermine the interests of the young United States. In the long list of grievances that comprised the Declaration of Independence , there appeared the accusation that King George “has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and condition.” At the outbreak of war in 1812, Americans identified British interests in the confederacy built by Tecumseh and the Prophet. And in the summer of 1832, American citizens in northern Illinois saw a familiar danger in every Indian face. They asserted that the local Potawatomis and Ho Chunks had “about as much friendship for us now, as they had during the late war with Great Britain.” Thus, the Black Hawk War proved to be only the most recent in a string of conflicts encompassing more than five decades sparked by British interference and Indian violence.4 Warfare marked the people and places of the western Great Lakes region. From the 1750s to the 1830s, violence under the auspices of multiple imperial struggles shaped the physical landscape. It drew, erased, and imposed political borders in territories more naturally delineated by rivers, portages, and [18.191.223.123] Project MUSE (2024-04-26 13:01...

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