Tenskwatawa

Tenskwatawa (; also called Tenskatawa, Tenskwatawah, Tensquatawa or Lalawethika) (January 1775 – November 1836) was a Native American religious and political leader of the Shawnee people, known as the Prophet or the Shawnee Prophet. He was a younger brother of Tecumseh, a leader of the Shawnee. In his early years Tenskwatawa was given the name Lalawethika ("He Makes a Loud Noise" or "The Noise Maker"), but he changed it around 1805 and transformed himself from a hapless, alcoholic youth into a spiritual leader.

In the early 1800s, Tenskwatawa formed a community with his followers near Greenville in western Ohio, and in 1808 he and Tecumseh established a village that the Americans called Prophetstown north of present-day Lafayette, Indiana. At Prophetstown, the brothers' Pan-American Indian resistance movement increased to include thousands of followers, and Tenskwatawa provided the spiritual foundation. Together, they mobilized the Indigenous American Nations in the Northwest Territory to fight settlers.

On November 7, 1811, while Tecumseh was away, Tenskwatawa ordered the pre-dawn attack on a hostile, encroaching military force encamped near Prophetstown that initiated the Battle of Tippecanoe. The American Indians retreated after a two-hour engagement and abandoned Prophetstown, which the Americans burned to the ground. The battle did not end the American Indians' resistance against the United States, but he lost his influence, became an outcast, and moved to Canada during the War of 1812. After Tecumseh was killed at the Battle of the Thames in 1813, the American Indian resistance movement faltered and was eventually defeated.