The Lafayette Journal and Courier is reporting on vandalism to the Tippecanoe Battle Ground monument. Even though I’m not generally inclined to believe in hell, I find myself hoping there is a special place there for the kinds of people who would deface our monuments in this way.
Messages spray-painted on the monument said, “America repent,”
“Justice will be served,” “Coward,” “Give us back our spiritual capital” and “Tecumseh’s not dead.”
Tippecanoe County Parks & Recreation Department superintendent Allen Nail gets it exactly right when he says:
“We see the battlefield as hallowed ground where 196 years ago brave men, red and white, fought and died courageously,” Nail said. “I don’t know how anybody could hope to do honor by doing this sort of thing.”
Hopefully they figure out who did this so they can prosecute and force repayment for the repairs. The Tippecanoe Battle Ground is one of my favorite places to take my kids. This is really appalling to me.
I disagree with the method used by the protestors but it is important to remember that the battle was the decisive military defeat of the indigenous peoples of this area by outside interlopers. The monument was put up by the victors to commemorate their success at subjugation.
This area was then open for “ethnic cleansing”. We have no recognized tribes remaining nor any reservations. All that’s left is the ironic name of this state: Indiana.
While the graffiti appears written to suggest it came from Indians I wouldn’t assume that as fact. In any case, who ever despoiled the monument got their history wrong if they meant to suggest Tecumseh had been there. He wasn’t.
If memory serves, Tecumseh was up in Detroit tending to business.
First of all, I’ll be surprised if whoever did this turns out to be a Shawnee. My first guess would be teenagers. But, I could be wrong.
The whole business of European conquest of North America is kind of a moral thicket. They done somebody wrong to take control of the real estate. And, as a citizen of the great state of Indiana, I am benefiting hugely from their actions. What’s more, I don’t feel like I have done anything morally objectionable, and I know that I have no plans to work to dismantle the improvements made by the Europeans and their descendants before returning the property to . . . somebody — descendants of the Shawnee, I suppose.
Did the Shawnee take the property from someone else before they took up occupancy? Seems likely. But, I guess I don’t know.
At the end of the day, the best we can do is take responsibility for our own actions and try to live as morally as we can. Whoever defaced the monument is obviously in the minus column on that score. We can also recognize that the Europeans did some pretty horrible things when they got to town. But, I’m not going to lose a lot of sleep feeling responsible for what they did.
If Native Americans are currently suffering from ongoing discrimination, then, by all means, let’s try to fix that. But spray painting a nice pretty place where my kids play isn’t doing anybody a damn bit of good.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_Tippecanoe
*ominous music plays*
First, my archaeology is half-remembered and at least thirty years out of date, but as I recall the tribes living in Indiana in historical times had pretty much been pushed there by European settlers and the tribal conflicts they fomented. Indiana had mostly been a hunting ground previously, sparsely populated, dating to the end of the Hopewell (mound-building) period. And yes, the political history of the aboriginal North America looks pretty much like the political history of Europe.
And I haven’t seen the monument since childhood, Doug, so correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems a mite facile for a parks employee to claim it honors “red and white” when there’s a prominent statue of Harrison and none of The Prophet.
It’s a kid’s protest, to be sure, the protest of young people who learn for the first time the distinction between six hundred years of history and the lies we tell them about it, and who take hypocrisy and complacency for complicity. Frankly, I’m not convinced they’re wrong about that, but I’m old enough to realize that vandalism engenders only anger and easy justifications; the real enemy of human decency isn’t that monument but the sad history behind the Contact, that history we skew badly when we tell it at all. It’s a history I hope your own adorable youngsters will learn warts and all, the better to live out this century according to what we now claim as American ideals.
The monument is primarily to celebrate the victors — I think there is some discussion of the Prophet and his followers, but lesser and probably added later. However, not too far down the road is the relatively recently created Prophetstown State Park.
I’d echo Wilson.
This vandalism saddens me, as I was really struck by how balanced I found this site when I last visited. The museum and interpretors recognized that both sides felt “right” about their actions, both acted in what they believed was best and the carnage horrified all sides. There’s some great discussion of the Prophet and his followers and a stone errected to mark the spot where he fell in battle.
Yet as I write these words, I am struck by the similarities. I think that GWB is in his own tree, and it’s not hard to understand why the war has continued for the Iraquiis. We’re fighting over territory, assets and boasting rights, not so very different.
There are better ways in which to protest, ones that don’t involve spray paint. GWB is never going to see this, and it’s not going to affect foreign policy. It takes five minutes to deface a monument, far longer to write a congressperson, picket the White House or (heaven forbid) vote.
My recollection of the history of the late 18th and early 19th century was that it was Kentucky that was sparsely settled and used by the Indians as hunting grounds. Indiana had its share of Indians, particularly the Miami, who were wide spread in northeastern Indiana, particularly along the Mississinewa River and at the confluence of the St. Mary’s and St. Joseph Rivers (present day Fort Wayne).
Speaking of Tecumseh, once he was dead (at the Battle of the Thames during the War of 1812) its interesting to me how he became a safe subject for European-Americans to honor the memory of.
I happen to live on Tecumseh Street in Indianapolis – supposedly Tecumseh was actually a proposed name for our new capital city. I too was puzzled about the popularity of Chief Tecumseh amongst some white folk in the 1800s.
During the War of 1812, 4000 militia from Kentucky came up to the Detroit area but were captured by the Brits and Indians. Allegedly, the heathen redskins started scalping some of the U.S. prisoners but when Tecumseh heard of such barbarous practices, he nobly stopped the carnage, reminding all that the prisoners were warriors like themselves and should be treated decently! Needless to say, he developed a great reputation after saving so many white folks lives. A truly noble savage and all that! Of course, Tecumseh was killed by US troops shortly thereafter…