Patrick Bottiger

Although the author almost lost me with the comment about Anthony Wayne's Legion of the United States being "full of veterans from the Revolutionary War," which was certainly not the case, I wound up continuing on because Bottiger does have an interesting story to tell in regards to politics on the frontier of the Old Northwest. To cut to the chase, most of the tales of Prophetstown, and the alleged menacing agenda of its Shawnee core, were misunderstandings at best, and out and out lies at worst. The Miami tribal leadership feared The Prophet and Tecumseh would undermine their territorial authority, and their trade connections, so they and their French-American allies had no reason to be supportive. From there, Henry Harrison picked up the thread, as his authoritarian leadership, and espousal of chattel slavery, caused much of the settler community to recoil from his leadership and agenda. All this misperception and dysinformation wound up being the foundation of Harrison's Tippecanoe campaign, which left the Miami people as the short and medium term winners on the ground. Despite Bottiger's somewhat labored writing style, this is a useful examination of frontier cultural politics, and a good contribution to the building of a general understanding of the diplomacy of the First Nations vis-à-vis the early American republic.… (mais)