Tenskwatawa Quotes
Indians should not drink whiskey. It was not made for them, but for the white people who alone know how to use it. That is the cause of all the mischiefs which the Indians suffer.
Prophet (the), *, [Tenskwatawa], Shawnee Spiritual Leader & Brother of Tecumseh, Speech to the Indians, Vincennes, 1808
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
American Indians not only had no culture of alcohol and drinking in moderation, but most Native Americans have a genetic susceptibility to alcoholism.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835-1910. The Congressmen who voted for Prohibition in the next century had not read or believed this quotation of Twain’s.
When Washington was younger and running for the colonial Virginia assembly, he bought beer and rum for all the voters in his precinct. He did not then realize the damage that alcohol can do. One of the commonalities between Lincoln and Washington were their experience in seeing alcohol cause the death and/or ruination of many. See {630832}.
At the time, the traders were mostly French who traded all kinds of goods and especially alcohol—usually rum—for fur animal pelts. Many of the Indians were partial to the French and French oriented traders who did not covet their land and would provide the Indians with alcohol and guns, lead and powder while English traders sometimes tried to restrict these items. Many tribes of American Indians are genetically very susceptible to alcohol—both in terms of immediate impairment—getting drunk and in developing a dependency on having alcohol—addiction or alcoholism.
Tenskwatawa (also called Tenskatawa, Tenskwatawah, Tensquatawa or Lalawethika) (January 1775 – November 1836) was a Native American religious and political leader of the Shawnee tribe, known as the Prophet or the Shawnee Prophet. He was a younger brother of Tecumseh, a leader of the Shawnee. In his early years Tenskwatawa was given the name Lalawethika ("He Makes a Loud Noise" or "The Noise Maker"), but he changed it around 1805 and transformed himself from a hapless, alcoholic youth into an influential spiritual leader. Tenskwatawa denounced the Americans, calling them the offspring of the Evil Spirit, and led a purification movement that promoted unity among the Indigenous peoples of North America, rejected acculturation to the American way of life, and encouraged his followers to pursue traditional ways.
