|
|
Prophetstown State Park Master Plan:
|
|
|
Peter J. Fritz, ASLA, AICP
|
© & Author Info |
In the Early 1800's, the Midwest was still a frontier wilderness. The Shawnee chieftain Tecumseh and his brother, The Prophet, created a powerful confederacy of thirteen tribes within Indiana and Ohio in an attempt to escape and deter westward settlement of Europeans. Almost two centuries later, efforts have begun to develop a new State Park and Museums at Prophetstown in Indiana, upon the site of the rallying ground for Tecumseh's movement. This paper will explain the planning and design process used to create a new State Park and Cultural Interpretive Center for the Woodland Indians and Early Twentieth Century Agriculture.
The three thousand-acre site for the State Park and the Museums at Prophetstown contains many significant cultural and historic resources. Several early Native American settlements occurred in the area, as well as the famous Battle of Tippecanoe. There is evidence within the site to verify at least two concentrated settlements.
The prehistoric components existing within the site have dated the Park's Native American history as beginning around 8,000 BC. Fine examples of Archaic and Woodland habitation exist, as well as eight mounds and earthworks of the Adena and Hopewell Indians dating from 500 BC to 1000 AD. The Miami Indians occupied northern Indiana from about 1400 AD until the Iroquios Confederacy invasions of the 1600's. The Miami of Indiana and the Potawatomi of Michigan chose to move, rather than fight the Iriquois. The Miami and Potawatomi both returned to their ancestral homelands after the Iroquois threat had passed. The Potawatomi took up residency within Indiana along the Tippecanoe River and along the western Wabash.
Prophetstown State Park derives its name from the Woodland Native American settlement that became the center of one of the greatest spiritual and resistance movements in our nation's history. Prophetstown was established in the early 1800's at the invitation of the Potawatomi who lived within the region. The Potawatomi believed in the abilities of two Shawnee leaders, the War Chief Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa (the Prophet). Tenskwatawa was considered to be a great prophet among the Woodland people of the Great Lakes, and provided primary leadership; Tecumseh was a warrior and hunter of note, supplying military acumen.
In April of 1805, The Prophet experienced a vision in which The Creator spoke to him and told him to gather Indian people to oppose further settlement in the Great Lakes. He and his brother Tecumseh spent the next two years traveling throughout the Great Lakes, spreading this message. The Potawatomi and Kickapoo of Western Indiana invited their Shawnee brothers to leave western Ohio and eastern Indiana in April of 1808, and move to the juncture of the Tippecanoe and Wabash Rivers. Large delegations from the other tribes of Winnebago, Chippewa, Ottawa, Wyandotte, Sac, Fox, Wea, Piankaska, Kaskaskia, Miami, and Delaware came to live along the four-mile stretch of the Wabash River that is within the boundary of the State Park. Historic accounts mention the existence of hundreds of wigwams and quickly constructed log houses with 1,500 to 2,000 inhabitants. This move was an attempt to escape the ever-westward settlement of Europeans and to establish a large force that might deter settlement.
The site of the famous Battle of Tippecanoe is adjacent to the Park. In early November of 1811, Tecumseh was in the South seeking Cherokee, Chocktaw and Creek support for the settlement of Prophetstown. While Tecumseh was gone, General William Henry Harrison marched an army of twelve hundred men north from Vincennes to Prophetstown. There were up to six hundred warriors at Prophetstown and the Native Americans were outnumbered. The Battle of Tippecanoe was fought on November 7, 1811, and was won by Harrison's troops. Prophetstown was destroyed the next day. Fifty log structures and three hundred wigwams were destroyed, along with three thousand bushels of beans and ten thousand bushels of corn. The surviving Native Americans were eventually removed to reservations in Kansas and Oklahoma.
The State of Indiana began the initial planning process to create a new State Park in this general location back in the late 1960's. The interest in the cultural resources within the site and the creation of the Museums at Prophetstown merged with the identified need for a park in early 1989. A State Park Feasibility study was conducted that incorporated the cultural site of Prophetstown. The State of Indiana then appropriated funds for the purchase of land and the preparation of a detailed Master Plan. A movement also began to create Museums of Prophetstown, Inc., a non-profit organization that will lease land within the park to operate a site that interprets Native American history, agricultural history and natural history.
The goal of the master plan is to incorporate the ongoing planning process for the three hundred-acre Museums site into the master plan for the three thousand-acre State Park site in a seamless and uniform manner. Cultural resources within the site have played a major role in the planning process. The State of Indiana, Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology, provided confidential maps of identified sites that contain archeological remains. Many of these sites are related to the location of the original Prophetstown settlement.
Various physical features were inventoried and analyzed as to their limitation to future park development. Cultural sites are a result of past use by humans, although many of these sites were seen as a constraint to future park development. Some of the sites were included as part of the Museums property for private use by Native American groups.
The planning and architectural design process for the Museums site included Native Americans from twenty-three tribes. The project designers and State officials visited the descendants of the relocated residents of Prophetstown in Oklahoma to gather their input.
From the establishment of the State Park in the early 1990's, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources planned to implement privately funded cultural attractions within the park boundaries. Native American and agricultural museums were suggested because of the long and important association each have within the proposed park lands.
Prophetstown State Park Foundation, Inc. is a public, not for profit, 501 (c) 3, education foundation, established in 1995. It is dedicated to the preservation of the Native American and agricultural history, art, and traditions of the mid-Wabash River Valley Region through the operation of professional museum facilities and cultural programs. The Foundation's responsibility is to plan, construct and operate cultural institutions on leased land within the boundaries of Prophetstown State Park. The board and membership is a unique coalition of local and regional business and community leaders; representatives of more than 20 Great Lakes Native American Tribes; agricultural and environmental groups; and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.
The Museums of Prophetstown includes elements that interpret Native American history, agricultural history and natural history. Four important areas will be developed within the three hundred-acre site.
The three thousand-acre State Park site is rich in cultural resources, which have been incorporated into the overall park site. Archaeological sites were mapped as part of a composite suitability analysis. Improvements to the park respect these resources and avoid disturbance of identified sites. This map became an aid in determining appropriate locations for park program elements. Land within a known site and 200 feet beyond it is deemed to be severely limited for park development. Land within 200 and 400 feet of a site was designated as a moderate limitation, while greater than 400 feet exhibits slight limitations. The distances were developed using professional judgement and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources' desire to avoid calling attention to the sites, but not necessarily prohibiting access to them. The sites, therefore, will not become an advertised attraction to the park. Other limitations were mapped such as soils, slope, vegetation, road noise and potential for habitat restoration.
Landscape and habitat restoration throughout the park site will reflect the native plant materials that existed within the area around the time of European settlement. The restoration of these habitats will largely be based upon documentation of historical plant communities within the park and region, underlying soils, hydrological characteristics, physiography and microclimate of the various ecological zones. Historic section line surveys dating back to 1830 indicate that the lowlands near the Wabash River within the area of the park site were "bottomland timber", along with "land rich prairie" and "mostly wet prairie". It is likely that Native Americans may have
cleared much of the lowland for agriculture along the Wabash and the area near the confluence with the Tippecanoe River. It was common to occasionally burn areas near the rivers to keep land open for security purposes. This cultural influence upon the landscape may be interpreted within portions of the site by creating prairies and using fire as a continuing management tool.
The Master Plan for Prophetstown State Park and the Museums at Prophetstown is a plan for future generations. The cultural history of Native Americans and the subsequent European settlement has defined the character of contemporary American culture. The realization of the vision put forth by this plan will ensure that future generations understand this unique cultural history. By discovering our past, we will re-discover ourselves in the process.
Peter J. Fritz, ASLA, AICP
Director of Landscape Architecture
HNTB Corporation, Indianapolis