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The Prophet's Curse: The American Presidency and the Zero-Year Phenomenon - December 1999
WASHINGTON, DC, March 30, 1981. Two months into his presidency, Ronald Reagan was shot and gravely wounded by a lone gunman wielding a .22-caliber handgun. Was John Hinckley acting of his own volition, or was he guided by the cold, dead hand of an embittered Native American prophet named Tenskwatawa? Miraculously, through a combination of luck and location, Reagan survived the attempted assassination. But if the George Washington University Medical Center with its major trauma unit had been farther away, would he have been the eighth victim of the Prophet's Curse? Who was this Prophet whose legendary curse has so affected the course of American history? Does the legend have any basis in fact?
Tenskwatawa, the Prophet, was the younger brother of the great Shawnee Indian leader, Tecumseh. Both Tenskwatawa and Tecumseh exhibited remarkable leadership skills and prophetic powers. They sought to unify the Indian tribes against the white invaders. Tenskwatawa established "Prophet's Town" on at the juncture of the Wabash and Tippecanoe Rivers, where he trained more than 1,000 Indian warriors in a rigorous spiritual and athletic regimen.
Meanwhile, Tecumseh traveled far and wide, visiting other tribes and prophesying a great and unmistakable sign that the Indians should unify against the whites. That sign came on December 16, 1811, when the Great New Madrid Earthquake, the strongest temblor to strike the North American continent in historical times, struck the central Mississippi valley. That quake was so powerful that even though the epicenter was near present-day Cape Girardeau, Missouri, church bells rang a thousand miles away in Philadelphia, and for a day, the Mississippi River changed course and ran south to north, creating the mysterious Reelfoot Lake in northwest Tennessee.
But before he set off to the south to organize his confederacy, Tecumseh left command of his warriors with Tenskwatawa. Tecumseh cautioned his brother to do everything possible to avoid a war with the whites while he was gone. The time was not right; the Indian forces were not strong enough. But Tenskwatawa was not a patient man, and he sent his forces to attack William Henry Harrison's army at a place called Tippecanoe. His defeat ruined Tecumseh's great design. Unable to make peace with honor, Tecumseh aligned himself and his followers with the British shortly thereafter in the War of 1812.
After the defeat of the combined British and Shawnee forces at the Battle of the Thames, Tecumseh, gravely wounded, died and was buried in an unmarked grave. He had accurately predicted his death before the battle began. Tenskwatawa blamed his brother's death on Harrison, the American general who had defeated the Indian forces in battle after battle. Tenskwatawa lived until 1834, long enough to see Harrison, the former Governor of the Indiana Territory and the Northwestern Frontier, re-enter public life and advance politically from the Ohio state senate to the U.S. House of Representatives and finally, to the U.S. Senate.
Before he died, Tenskwatawa prophesied that Harrison would run for President of the United States in 1836 and lose, and again in 1840 and win. "But he will not live to enjoy his victory," said the Prophet. "He will die in his office." "No president has ever died in office," declared a visitor. "But Harrison will die, I tell you," replied Tenskwatawa. "And when he dies you will remember my brother Tecumseh's death. You think that I have lost my powers -- I who caused the sun to darken and Red Men to give up firewater. But I tell you Harrison will die. And after him, every Great Chief chosen every 20 years thereafter will die. And when each one dies, let everyone remember the death of our people."
And indeed, Harrison was elected President in 1840. On March 4, 1841, the 68-year-old Harrison delivered the longest inaugural address in American history - 105 minutes - outdoors on an extremely cold and windy day. He did not wear a hat. Thirty-one days later he died of pneumonia, after serving the shortest term of any American president.
With one exception, the American presidents elected every 20 years since William Henry Harrison have all died in office, just as the Prophet predicted:
· Abraham Lincoln, elected 1860, assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a die-hard Rebel
· James A. Garfield, elected 1880, assassinated by Charles Guiteau, a frustrated office-seeker
· William McKinley, elected 1900, assassinated by Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist
· Warren G. Harding, elected 1920, died unexpectedly of a heart attack in the White House
· Franklin D. Roosevelt, elected 1940, died of cerebral hemorrhaging during his fourth term
· John F. Kennedy, elected 1960, assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, a deranged drifter
Which brings us to the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan, elected 1980, shot in 1981. Has the Prophet's curse been broken? Is the curse nothing more than an incredible string of coincidences, stretching over more than 120 years? One other, rather chilling fact: This phenomenon has been called the "zero year" curse, due to the fact that presidents since 1840 elected in years ending in "0" have died in office. The only president to break the pattern, Zachary Taylor, died in 1850 - a year ending in "0".
Coincidence or curse, this string of presidential deaths leaves us with one final question: Why would anyone wish to be elected President of the United States of America in the year 2000? And with one cautionary fact: Careful attention should be paid to the selection of the Vice Presidential candidates nominated by the political parties next year.
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