otawatomi were found camping about Vincennes in great numbers
and trading everything of value for liquor. In General Harrison's day,
he endeavored time and time again to stop this nefarious traffic. On all
occasions when treaties were to be made, or council fires kindled, he
issued proclamations prohibiting the sale of liquor to the Indians.
These proclamations were inserted in the Western Sun, at Vincennes, on
more than one occasion, but they were unavailing. The temptation of a
huge profit was too strong. Carousals and orgies took place when the
Indians were under the influence of "fire-water." Fights and murders
were frequent. At the last, whiskey destroyed the last vestige of virtue
in their women, and valor in their warriors.

After the crushing of the Prophet in 1811, and the destruction of
British influence in the northwest, consequent upon the war of 1812, the
decline of the Potawatomi was swift and appalling. The terrible ravages
of "fire-water" played no inconsiderable part. Many of their principal
chieftains became notorious drunkards reeling along the streets of
frontier posts and towns and boasting of their former prowess. Even the
renowned Topenebee, the last principal chief of the tribe of the river
St. Joseph was no exception. Reproached by General Lewis Cass, because
he did not remain sober and care for his people, he answered: "Father,
we do not care for the land, nor the money, nor the goods; what we want
is whiskey! Give us whiskey!" The example set by the chiefs was not
neglected by their followers.

Nothing can better illustrate the shocking savagery and depravity of
some of their last chieftains, after the tribe had been contaminated by
the effect of strong liquors, than the story of Wabunsee, principal war
chief of the prairie band of Potawatomi residing on the Kankakee river
in Illinois, and in his early days one of the renowned and daring
warriors of his tribe. When General Harrison marched with his regulars
and Indiana and Kentucky militia, on the way to the battlefield of
Tippecanoe, he ascended the Wabash river, erecting Fort Harrison, near
the present site of Terre Haute, and christening it on Sunday, the 27th
day of October, 1811. From here, the army marched up the east bank of
the river, crossing the deep water near the present site of Montezuma,
Indiana, and erecting a block house on the west bank, about three miles
below the mouth of the Vermilion river, for a base of supplies. Corn and