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.

On November 7, 1811, while Tecumseh was away, Tenskwatawa ordered the pre-dawn attack on a hostile, encroaching American military force encamped near Prophetstown that initiated the Battle of Tippecanoe.

The battle did not end the American Indians' resistance against the United States, but the Prophet lost his influence, became an outcast, and moved to Canada during the War of 1812.

[4] His mother, Methoataske (or Methoataaskee, meaning "[One who] Lays Eggs in the Sand"), is believed to be either Muscogee Creek, Cherokee, or Shawnee, possibly of Pekowi division and the Turtle Clan.

[5][6] Methoataske, who was frightened by the American Revolution and deeply saddened by the death of Puckenshinwa, may have gone to live with her Creek relatives and then moved west with the Kispokothas in 1779, leaving Tenskwatawa and his siblings in the care of their older sister, Tecumpeas, who was married.

[3] In 1795, after the Battle of Fallen Timbers, the Indians of the Old Northwest signed the Treaty of Greenville with the American government, in which they agreed to surrender most of modern Ohio.

To this end, Jefferson encouraged American officials in the Northwest to deliberately entrap the tribes of the region in debt to force them to cede land.

Many established chiefs, such as Black Hoof and Little Turtle, encouraged their followers to adopt European customs and tried to maintain good relations with the American government.

[2][12] The land cessions, along with these trends, contributed to growing discontent among the tribes of the Old Northwest and gradually undermined the authority of the pro-accommodation chiefs.

[13] Beginning in 1805, Lalawethika had a series of religious visions that transformed his life, caused him to change his name to Tenskwatawa (meaning "Open Door"), and led him to reject his old ways.

[14][15] The Prophet's developing purification movement caused him to urge his followers to reject European habits, such as consumption of alcohol, and to return to their traditional ways.

[16][17] In 1805, Tenskwatawa, who evolved into an effective speaker and charismatic leader of his religious movement, formed a new community with his followers along the White River, near the present site of Greenville in western Ohio.

[20] He wrote a letter to the Delawares urging them to challenge Tenskwatawa to "cause the sun to stand still ... or the dead to rise from their graves", adding that "If he does these things you may then believe that he has been sent by God."

[23] When some of the tribal chiefs tried to promote compromise and conciliation with the United States, Tenskwatawa, proclaiming his obedience to the Great Spirit, lashed out against the pro-U.S. sympathizers and castigated them as wicked traitors.

Although there was opposition from some tribal leaders such as Little Turtle, Tenskwatawa decided to move farther west and establish a village in a more remote location to further distance his followers from the settlers.

Although the village endured hardships, such as food shortages, epidemics, and tribal disagreements, Prophetstown became an intertribal, religious stronghold within the Indiana Territory for 3,000 Native Americans.

One effect of the increasing pan-Indian alliance was steady pressure from Harrison and the U.S. government to establish land-cession treaties, including a pivotal one made in 1809.

Under the terms of the Treaty of Fort Wayne, the tribes in the Wabash River area ceded an estimated 2.5 to 3 million acres of land to the U.S. government.

While warriors continued to congregate at Prophetstown, Tenskwatawa and Tecumseh, who adamantly wanted to retain their independence from the United States, denounced the treaty.

Some of Prophetstown's inhabitants became nervous about the rising tension between settlers and natives and left the village, but Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa continued to recruit young warriors to join their movement.

[33] In the fall of 1811, when Tecumseh journeyed south to meet with representatives of other tribes in hopes of building a larger alliance, Tenskwatawa was left in command at Prophetstown.

This attack failed, and during the evening Tenskwatawa consulted with the spirits and decided that sending a party to assassinate Harrison in his tent was the best way to avoid a battle.

Harrison claimed hundreds of Indian fatalities; however, the actual number fell, according to another source, between thirty and fifty, with an additional seventy to eighty wounded.

[36][37] The battle did not end the Indians' resistance to the United States, but their retreat caused the Prophet, who proved to be a poor military leader, to lose his influence.

[23][41] After Tecumseh's death in 1813, Tenskwatawa retained a small group of followers, but had no significant leadership position among the American Indians in the subsequent decade.

In 1824, at the request of Lewis Cass, the governor of Michigan Territory, the aging Prophet returned to the United States to assist the federal government with its plans for the Shawnee removal west of the Mississippi River.

A few years before his death, Tenskwatawa agreed to pose for George Catlin, who painted his portrait as a Shawnee "holy man" in traditional attire.

The White Feather Spring historical marker, erected in 1978, denotes the approximate location of his gravesite in Kansas City, which remained unmarked for decades.