(06-14-2023 01:23 PM)Lush Wrote: on the tale end of our wisky roadie come this time last summer, the girls and i camped at prophetstown state park. we hit up von's in west lafayette for books, stickers (they had this kurt vonnegut doll i almost bought) and some microbrew joint advertised off the interstate prior. helluva state park to get to. bridge was out for starters, looping around the interstate come across some road which led me to believe that's the direction of the park. no brown signs saying state park this way other than the one on the interstate. a modern convenience for me in terms of navigation is an open gas station; my children don't mind aimless driving. the side street was called prophet something or other- maybe something a bit more esoteric as tenskatawa. and that took me to the campground. full sun. there might have been a small tree. good thing we got there late!
we toured the battlefield the next day. as we traipsed over graves i pictured campfires kept alive as these men now below might slay one another. lots of foilage, about a football field size. maybe that road wasn't nearby; battlefield mightuv been larger. when i felt we'd had enough well we'd leave. some bluegrass hootenanny was in the throes of commencing. folks began spilling out of their camper homes. i mentioned to the girls that this was an option had we known about it. we went into the museum visitor center whereupon i emptied my purse to the docent. i had exactly the seven dollars expected of me to tour the facilities. the ladies and i took in william henry's heroics (wildcats represent) and i pictured tenskatawa bravely hiding in his tent. cowering behind all that mischief
upon being set loose into the gift shop the docent asked if i was in town for the hootenanny and just told him that it'd bugged me i'd yet to be here. oh an enthusiast? well he was just medieval man who'd never even read the frontiersman. he said he hadn't gotten around to it and i took him at his word. he exhausted his knowledge and sought more from me. i had only read the frontiersman. i looked at a shirt with tecumseh's visage taking up the whole thing. i once had a shirt of abe lincoln holding up two revolvers. gave that to someone in a bar. said his bro was a huge lincoln fan. i didn't buy the shirt. i like the light airy shirts. american apparel ruined me
from there we descended upon battle ground, indiana to deposit postcards and the town looked worthy to walk. some hot ass chick was taking pictures of the buildings. there weren't really "shops" but there were storefronts and i don't know why the blessed place ain't moderately hopping. i do believe in proximity to both lafeyettes there could be enough population pull if anyone gave a damn about the shawnee i suppose. the shawnee, once heard tell that they were the greatest travelers the world has ever known. people in ohio don't know tecumseh. i really didn't; and now i think we all should. i think i mailed my von's sticker with the postcards because i tore the car apart when we got home. all in all, william henry was something of a badass. wildcats represent
Did you visit Prophet's Rock?
He didn't cower in his tent, he perched on Prophet's Rock (well back from the battlefield) and chanted while telling his men that the bullets wouldn't kill them.
In high school we had an Ohio History class, and one entire term centered around reading The Frontiersman. Eckert took a lot of liberties for dramatic effect.
My parents farm, outside of Covington, Ohio, is no more than 5 or so miles away from Piqua and the site in Piqua along the Great Miami River where Tecumseh and his followers lived for close to two years, as a sign of protest against the Greenville Treaty, before moving to the Lafayette area and founding Prophetstown.
That Piqua location is the last site in Ohio where a Native American population lived and harvested a season of crops.
When I attended UC I spent a great deal of time at Langsam library, and from time to time they would have carts of old books to take for free. I found 4-5 old books (late 1800's to early 1900's range) about Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa (his original name was Lalawethika - The Noise Maker).
People in my area know of Tecumseh. Probably because he was born here (outskirts of Xenia, Ohio) and a lot of things in the area have Tecumseh / Shawnee names.
In regards to the Shawnee being travelers, it is commonly accepted that the Suwanee River in southern Georgia/northern Florida (I-75 crosses it) is named after the Shawnee as they lived in that region up until the Seminoles forced them out, which began their migration to the Kentucky/Ohio region in the late 1600's/early 1700's.
Great history. I love it.