George W. Bush may still be moving into the White House, but should an ancient Indian curse come true, Americans might need to get used to the name President Dick Cheney.

Dating back to 1811, the Curse of Tippecanoe is believed by some to be responsible for the death of seven presidents and an attempt at the life of another.

After the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811, legend has it that Shawnee Indian Chief Tecumseh sent a letter to then-Gen. William Harrison stating the details of a prophesy.

“Harrison will not win this year to be the Great Chief,” he said. “But he may win next year. If he does … he will not finish his term. He will die in his office. 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.”

Harrison would go on to be elected president in 1840, but only one month into his term, he died of pneumonia, becoming the first president ever to die in office.

“I don’t believe in curses, and there’s certainly nothing in the Constitution which states the president has to croak every 20 years,” said David Kyvig, NIU presidential research director and history professor.

The presidential deaths provide an argument, however. Abraham Lincoln took over the presidency 20 years later in 1861 and was assassinated on April 14, 1865.

In 1880 and 1900, James Garfield and William McKinley were elected president, respectively, but neither would make it more than a year before they were assassinated.

Elected in 1921, Warren Harding died of food poisoning two years later.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was elected for one of his terms in 1940, died in 1945 from a stroke while serving his fourth term in office.

John F. Kennedy was elected in 1960 and assassinated in November of 1963.

Ronald Reagan took office in 1980, and in March 1981, an assassination attempt left him hospitalized.

Kyvig said the trend probably became noticeable after the Kennedy assassination. He said Reagan’s assassination attempt highlighted the increased efforts in modern medicine and the proximity of hospitals in major cities like Washington, D.C.

The bad blood between Tecumseh and Harrison began when Harrison and his men invaded the Shawnee Village in 1811 while Tecumseh was away, thus starting the Battle of Tippecanoe. U.S. forces ultimately would retreat but not before doing damage to the village and the Native American military.

Tecumseh long believed that land shouldn’t be bought from or taken from the Indians, and when he returned to see his village, Tecumseh sent a letter to Harrison.

Should the prophesy continue, Bush would become only the ninth president to die while in office, seven of which could be products of the curse. The other death is Zachary Taylor, who died of cholera in 1850.

Kyvig said we won’t know if it is a coincidence until the end of the Bush term in office.

“I think it’s largely people looking back and thinking it’s a pattern,” Kyvig said. “Each episode is a completely separate and different episode & none are linked in any way.”