Tecumseh’s Curse on American Presidents (Battleground, Indiana) 

Sir I am a descendant of Tecumseh as well,although I am like 80% something Nordic,more of a mut than anything,I am very proud of my Shawnee blood,even if it is but a drop or two, Peace be with you Brother.

My pleasure, Sarah! Tecumseh was a remarkable leader, eloquent speaker and fierce warrior, a man of great intelligence. He was respected by his enemies, William Henry Harrison even called Tecumseh, “one of those uncommon geniuses, which spring up occasionally to produce revolutions and overturn the established order of things.” Tecumseh’s considered a national hero in Canada. American High Schools, nature trails, military units, and even an engine company is named after him, not to forget William Tecumseh Sherman, the famed union civil war general. I had long wanted to do a segment on Tecumseh, and having visited Vincennes, Prophetstown and Battleground, had just enough footage to do this one. To do one covering his complex life, would have required a lot more travel, to do it justice! 🙂

Panther in the Sky is a great novel.

Thank-you! Every now and then I like to add a lesson I’ve learned. 🙂

Lots of great history to be proud of!

You should say more.

That’s truly amazing! I myself would love to know more about history. Very interesting. I’m happy for you.

Very nice.

I am descended from the same grandparents as Wm H Harrison

@@edwardh1591 💯👍🙏🏻

I think I only learned about it, a year ago, and have lived in Indiana my entire life!

Well welcome to the adventure! Lots and lots of unusual places and topics in Indiana. I try to get at least one video out per week, but some of these have been mammoth projects, that have taken months of research and location filming! Never hesitate to throw me an idea! I’ve been able to deep dive many interesting subjects, due to the thoughtful suggestions of viewers! 🙂

Thank-you kindly! Indiana never hesitates to offer unusual stuff! 🙂

Thanks Pat!

At some point, I’d like to do a story about the famous Native Americans that lived in Indiana. Tecumseh, Little Turtle, Menominee, etc. They are being forgotten, and I’d heard about them all through grade school.

You found an error, thank-you! Will put it in the errata section

Lots of back stories that parents used to tell their children, many now lost.

I as well Sister,I as well

My pleasure, Debbie!

Had you ever ran across the Lymon Draper manuscripts? Lymon was born in 1815 and idolized Daniel Boone and the frontier stories. He interviewed tons of old pioneers, war heroes, “borrowed” old letters and correspondence. He wrote down extremely detailed stories that are now on microfilm at Frankfort, Kentucky, including stories about the bloodthirsty “Blue Jacket”, which massacred two of my ancestors and kidnapped my gggg Grandmother. Many of the books you read today, about frontier life, Indians, and pioneer heroes, pull from Lymon Drapers detailed work. You can find it online as well. You sound a lot like me, with a love of history and legends! I know I’ve went down more rabbit holes than I’d like to admit! 🙂

Welcome to the adventure! I try to find interesting stories, but most of the time, they find me! =)

Tons of buried history. Doing my part to dig some of it up. 🙂

Thank-you for your kind words! I love Indiana’s places, legends and people. 🙂

@@AdventureswithRoger I didn't realize I can't upload pics, any way copied the sign just to give you some interesting info on Leesville IN, Site of 1st settlement in Lawrence county, 1810. Site of Potawatomi Indian massacre, 3-10-1813. Earliest school in the County(still standing) 1 room school. 1815 and 1st highschool 1858. Leesville was platted in June 1818 and named after Lee county Virginia

@@gdotts3468 Send me an email at returpen@yahoo.com

Key words matter, I don’t care what RU-vid says! 🙂

Thank-you, James!

I don’t know of any caves in Madison. I’ve done 6 films covering Tecumseh and the Shawnee attacks on settlers. Tecumseh and Harrison / the Curse ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ja93o0FzOQI.html Tecumseh coming to Vincennes ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-RY_SsUCNErc.html Tecumseh threatening other chiefs that sold land to Harrison ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-MAtMmDfM1aw.html Shawnees trying to kill Squire Boone ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-9uny0JoBc6s.html Indians killing other Indians on Sand Island ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-GsRvZfzwllE.html The Pigeon Roost Massacre by Shawnees ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xCTuBxVStkM.html

@@AdventureswithRoger ty!

I’m just glad it’s not just me, that finds this crazy stuff interesting! 😀

I live about 22 minutes from Harrison County, Indiana, and there are schools and places galore, named after William Henry Harrison! If you go about 45 minutes west, everything is named after Abraham Lincoln or his family members. We have a lot of great history in Indiana! 🙂

Thanks, Sam! I’m working on five videos at the moment. Many more adventures to come! 😉

I stood at the massive plain, and tried to imagine the immense history that happened there. So quiet and serene, with only the wind blowing the wild grass.

I’ve only been to Prophetstown once. It looked like a great place to ride bikes, but I didn’t see anything I’d call historical, and left disappointed. Would’ve loved to seen something like North Union Cemetery!

My pleasure, Steve! I’ve really enjoyed these travels, and despite exploring the state for over 40 years, I still find things I’ve never seen before!

Thanks, Jordan! I love biographies. I love biographies so much, that when I was a newlywed, I would come home from work and watch the biographies on cable, until I fell asleep. Every night. It caused problems. 😀 Anyways, Little Turtle, War of 1812, Chief Menominee, giant tales, there’s some great stories up north. But it’s a long haul from southern Indiana. What I did for my last trip far north: I planned all the location shoots to support two films. On the road by 8am or so, didn’t get back home until after 2am if I recall. Think it ended up being about 700 miles in one day! 🙂

@@AdventureswithRoger Thanks so much for sharing with us, man. Means a lot!

Thank-you!

I did a piece about one of the first black schools in New Albany, and I thought it would do well. I loved the curators stories about tough times and how she not only attended the school, but became a teacher for Floyd County. It was truly inspirational to me, and I loved talking to her. She now donates her time at the old school, showing kids that they can overcome anything. It was a total flop, very little views. I beat myself up for awhile, wondering what I did wrong, how I should’ve wrote it, different angles I should’ve photographed. Maybe if I’d insisted she talk to the camera (She didn’t want to)? Music: too droning. A lot of things could’ve been better, all my fault. But I believe the biggest reason: it was about school. I believe I could’ve done all the right things, and it wouldn’t have faired much better. People love videos about haunted tunnels, scary things in the woods, legends, and other unusual things. People know what school is and most try to avoid it. Except for when kids are sent to them on field trips, the noble old places get almost no visitors. Nevertheless, I still feel bad that I couldn’t do the school and that wonderful teacher justice.

I sneak in some philosophy, every now and then. 🙂

Noted on the bad date.

I’ve had people tell me that the curse was broken, via the prayers of many groups, that were familiar with the curse. One group started meeting a month before he was shot!

I skipped over a lot of history to shorten this down. Tecumseh met with Harrison a second time, before Tippecanoe, and told Harrison he would be away from Prophetstown in the first place, but admonished both Harrison and Tenskwatawa that there be “no mischief” while he was gone. Harrison blamed a lot on the Prophet, from allowing horse thievery, harassment of settlers, to cold blooded murder of a sentry. While much responsibility was admitted by the prophet himself, Harrison piled up everything he could as a justification to attack Prophetstown. He knew Tenskwatawa wasn’t the leader that Tecumseh was. It was an opportunistic move. I also found it touching that all but one volunteer from Harrison county, all of them dressed in yellow buckskin jackets and called “yellow jackets”, were killed at Tippecanoe. Simply wiped out. A few months ago, back in Harrison County, that one volunteers yellow jacket was nearly discarded, by a local man, as he didn’t know what it was. His Father had been an avid artifact collector, but the son never had an interest. Luckily, members of the historical society attended the auction.

@@AdventureswithRoger wow about yellow jacket! I know Spurs defeat location it happened is not known to public at least . Native Americans won . They cut head off a scout and had on stick. Got the white men to chase them on horse back into an area where 3 ravines meet into 1. They got ambushed and had to retreat. Really made Harrison mad . There is also some mounds close to Battleground. Not much public knowledge. But i think it finally made list of places. It it behind a golf course

@@jefflebowski4182 Lots of mounds in Indiana, likely a future segment. My wife’s mom was telling me about one near Columbus, Indiana, that was in a farmers field. Not regulated at the time, they kept digging into it and finding stone axe heads, spear points and arrowheads. Eventually, there was no mound.

@@AdventureswithRoger yeah there is lots all over the state . Angel and Mounds state park Vincennes Petersburg is good one. Still there . The one in Petersburg was a rumor myth of a giant with copper all around him. Vietnam vet I knew grew up there .

Spur's Defeat happened a year after Tippecanoe. It's actually sometimes called Second Battle of Tippecanoe or Battle of Wildcat Creek. The site of the Winnebago Village are known, as is the site of Besayon's execution following the battle. "Officially" the battle site is unknown, as the State doesn't believe it's an important enough event to fully study, however a number of local historians have pretty well pinpointed the location of the battle site in addition to the possible location of the graves of the 18 men killed in the battle. Honestly, if you read the descriptions and look at on overhead of the area, you can pretty well narrow it down as well.

Hahaha!

😆 lol

Thanks! I know correlation doesn’t prove causation, but the presidents up to Reagan definitely had a spooky correlation! Biden sure doesn’t look well, agree on the “hanging on by a thread”.

Tecumseh was an exceptional leader, and respected by even his enemies. I’m working on a much bigger project, about Indiana’s Native American past, hope to have it out in a few months

I’d heard that about Nancy. Another viewer said that an Christian evangelical group had also heard of the curse, and put together a prayer vigil, one day before he was shot, claiming to have broken any curse. I don’t know what to make of it all, really, but it is definitely an odd pattern! 🙂

@@AdventureswithRoger exactly. I just don't know what to make of all this but it is a great story and quite coincidental really. No one can deny that it's an odd pattern for every president elected twenty years apart dies in office. Thank you for the great videos.

@@Woody_Florida My pleasure! More stuff is coming as I settle into editing!

@@AdventureswithRoger Not just the 20 yr curse broke for since every president has had at leaste one 'close' attempt thwarted! I choose prayer works. Yep, I'm bingeing your videos! Loving them. 👍

He may have survived the shooting but his mental health failed while he was in office. It is speculated that Nancy was the force behind the presidency. So, is the curse broken, or has it somehow evolved?

Chief Menominee! When I travel north, I hope to film his monument. Below is a link telling about whom he was. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Menominee

We’re both wrong: Reagan died June 5th, 2004! But you’re considerably more right than I was, not sure how I missed that. Thank-you!

Ahhhh that’s right.... I thought I was a senior in high school when he died , I guess I was one year out. Loved the video by the way!

It was an odd correlation for sure. There’s many theories of why it seemed to halt at president Reagan. Someone said Nancy Reagan was aware of “the curse” and consulted astrologers to try and prevent it. Others have said a Christian coalition also knew of the curse, and began a prayer chain, a day before Reagan was shot. You mentioned the renewed respect for native cultures: I heard many exhumed skeletons have been returned to tribes for reburial. But, it may have been a correlation and not a proof of causation. Each 20 year cycle provided 4-8 years for something bad to happen, and some statisticians have said it’s a forced correlation. Certainly interesting!

Where’s home? I’m thinking about another northern trip, next spring.

@@AdventureswithRoger Logansport area. I lived in Americus for a couple of years and wandered all around battleground while i lived there.

“Monsters of Indiana” was also filmed up that way. I have a few more stories that happen in northern Indiana.

@@AdventureswithRoger I literally just watched that one lol heard of the Manitou monster.

I filmed both of those in one long day. Think my roundtrip mileage from southern Indiana was 615 miles. 🙂 It was a good time, I’d never been to that area before.

Have not heard of that one.

Had not heard that. I’d read where Nancy Reagan was aware of the curse, and constantly consulted astrologers, to protect her husband. Someone said that a Christian group assembled a prayer chain, having heard of it.

Had not read that!

Noted

Alzheimer’s and complications from pneumonia

Being the oldest person to ever be elected president, curse or no curse, it’s a risky thing for an elderly person. I’ve read articles about how it prematurely ages people. One of them showed pictures of Lincoln at the beginning of his presidency, and near the end: it looked like he aged 30 years!

Tecumseh’s Curse and Monster Stories of Indiana are semi close, the latter hitting Oxford, and Rochester. I’ve spent 5 years on southern Indiana, am only starting to pick up content in Northern Indiana.

Roger, NWI used to have something called "Everglades of the North" there is some documentation on it. Very cool. Might be interesting for you to check into. Good job on the videos. You've given my kids and I a couple awesome spots to visit that we wouldn't have otherwise. Keep them coming!

@@KK-ei1ni Thank-you for your kind words! I’ve got a dry erase board beside the desk. It’s my “story idea board”. I write down things I dream up, things people recommend, things I see on the internet. The ones that make me want to get up early and drive, those are the ones! 🙂