Tecumseh’s Eclipse
In 1806, Ohio had just ratified, the first official expansion into the plains. To date, the frontier was wholly undeveloped, a truly wild west. The northern plains was home to several native tribes, most notably the Shawnee, led by the warrior shaman Tecumseh and his brothers.
Tecumseh, a self-proclaimed prophet, was arguably one of the most influential Americans of that day. Not only did he have the ear of all of the plains tribes, but conferred with white men of note, mostly educated men like scientists, mathematicians and inventors. His younger brother Tenskwatawa, born slightly deformed as a triplet, had fallen to the white man’s whiskey and was recognized for years only as a drunkard. One day Tenskwatawa claimed to have been visited by the Great Spirit who convinced him to free himself of the demon alcohol and work with his brothers to unite the plains tribes in defiance on the rapacious expansion of the white man into the tribal plains.
William Henry Harrison had just been appointed governor of the territory of Indiana by President Jefferson. Harrison, working to establish civility in the territory was greatly disturbed by the influence of the warrior strategist Tecumseh and saw the various tribes banding together as the greatest threat to westward expansion. In a public gathering, he called upon Tecumseh to prove he could indeed invoke the powers of the Great Spirit. "If he (Tecumseh) is really a prophet, ask Him to cause the sun to stand still or the moon to alter its course, the rivers to cease to flow or the dead to rise from their graves.”
Some days passed before Tecumseh replied in note of the public, "Fifty days from this day there will be no cloud in the sky. Yet, when the sun has reached its highest point, at that moment will the Great Spirit take it into her hand and hide it from us. The darkness of night will thereupon cover us and the stars will shine round about us. The birds will roost and the night creatures will awaken and stir."
June 16th, 1806, exactly 50 days from Tecumseh’s proclamation, a moon shadow passed from Massachusetts to Baja California, casting the eastern plains of a forming nation into total solar eclipse. Many have speculated about how Tecumseh was able to predict the eclipse. One theory is that he received the information from a white scientist. Another is that the natives had long studied and tracked stellar events, as evidenced by Mayan calendars and other relics. Some theorized he was truly a prophet who could receive advice from the Great Spirit. He did, after all, predict the 1811 earthquake in New Madrid, Missouri, the largest recorded earthquake in American history.
