river rising in Tippecanoe Lake in Kosciusko county, northern Indiana, U.S. The river flows 166 miles (267 km) generally southwest into the Wabash River north of Lafayette. Tippecanoe is probably derived from the Miami Indian name for buffalo fish. Between the towns of Buffalo and Brookston on the river's lower course, Lakes Shafer and Freeman are impounded by power dams. At the junction with the Wabash, Major General William Henry Harrison defeated the Shawnee Indians under the brother of Tecumseh, known as the Prophet (Nov. 7, 1811).