202 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



been on their way with him, had not a couple of his political enemies in his own tribe 

 followed on his track, even to those remote tribes, and defeated his plans by pro- 

 nouncing him an imposter and all of his forms and plans an imposition upon them, 

 which they would be fools to listen to. In t'his manner this great recruiting officer 

 was defeated in his plans for raising an army of men to fight his brother's battles ; 

 and to save his life he discharged his medicines as suddenly as possible, and secretly 

 traveled his way home, over those vast regions, to liis own tribe, where the death of 

 Tecumsehandtheoppositionof enemies killed all his splendid prospects and doomed 

 him to live the rest of his days in silence and a sort of disgrace, like all men in Indian 

 communities who pretend to great medicine, in any way, and fail, as they all think 

 such failure an evidence of the displeasure of the Great Spirit, who always judges 

 right. 



This, no doubt, has been a very shrewd and iniluential man, but circumstances have 

 destroyed him, as they have many other great men before him ; and he now lives 

 respected, but silent and melancholy in his tribe. I conversed with him a great deal 

 about his brother Tecumseh, of whom he spoke frankly, and seemingly with great 

 pleasure ; but of himself and his own great schemes he would say nothing. He told 

 me that Tecumseh's plans were to embody all the Indian tribes in a grand confederacy, 

 from the province of Mexico to the Great Lakes, to unite their forces in an army that 

 would be able to meet and drive back the white people, who were continually ad- 

 vancing on the Indian tribes and forcing them from their lands towards the Rocky 

 Mountains ; that Tecumseh was a great, general, and that nothing but his premature 

 death defeated his grand plan. 



Ten-squat-a-ivay (Open Door), the Prophet, brother of Tecumthe, [see portrait. — 

 McKenuy & Hall, vol. 1, page 38,] one of three brothers born at a birth at Old Chil- 

 icothe (Ohio), in 1775. 



His name. The Open Door, was intended to represent him as the way, or door, which 

 had opened for the deliverance of the red people from the incoming whites. His town 

 on the Wabash (Indiana) was known as the " Prophets' town." He was an emissary 

 of evil in the interest of Tecumthe and . 



The Prophet possessed neither the talents nor the frankness of his brother. As a 

 speaker he was fluent, smooth, and plausible, and was j)ronouuced by Governor Harri- 

 son the most graceful and accomplished orator he had seen amongst the Indians; but 

 he was sensual, cruel, weak, and timid. He never spoke when Tecumthe was present. 

 At the council at Vincennes, in 18L0, The Prophet stood quietly unmoved while his 

 brother Tecumthe objected to a former land treaty, saying, "What, sell a country; 

 why not sell the air, the clouds, and the great sea, as well as the earth ? Did not 

 the Great Spirit make them all for the use of his children?" 



The Prophet was an extensive polygamist, having an unusual number of wives, 

 whom he forced to work for him. His history is inseparable from that of his brother 

 Tecumthe, up and to the death of the latter at the battle of the Thames in 1812. 

 After the death of Tecumthe The Prophet dropped to the dignity of an ordinary In- 

 dian, and quietly passed away. 



280.* Pah-te-coo-saw, The Straight Man; semi-civilized. 



(See Plate No. 213, page 117, vol. 2, Catlin's Eight Years.) 



Of this picture Mr. Oatlin writes : 



Pah-te-eoo-saw, The Straight Man (Plate No. 214), a warrior of this tribe, has distin- 

 guished hircself by his exploits ; and when he sat for his picture had painted his face 

 in a very curious manner with black and red paint. 



281. Lay-l6o-ah-pee-ai-shee-ka"w, Grass, Bush, and Blossom; half civil, and 

 more than half drnn'k. Painted 1831. (No plate.) 

 Besides the i)ersouages whom I have above mentioned, I painted the portraits of 

 several others of note in the tribe, and amongst them Lay-loo-ah-pe-ai-shee-lcaw (Grass, 



* Lost or destroyed. 



