Tecumseh's Rebellion

Soon after the conclusion of the Treaty of Fort Greenville in 1795, frontiersmen, land speculators, and settlers surged into the newly opened lands and beyond into Indian country, thereby exacerbating tensions with local tribes. As pressure mounted for further expansion beyond the line delimited under the terms of the Treaty of Fort Greenville, the governor of the new Indiana Territory, William Henry Harrison, inaugurated a policy designed to acquire additional territory from the Indians incrementally. Hence, between 1802 and 1809, Harrison and Governor William Hull of the Michigan Territory concluded a series of treaties under the terms of which a significant portion of the area between the Great Lakes, the Ohio River, and the Mississippi River was opened for settlement. As the white settlers pressed against the Indians from the south and east, the tribes north of the Ohio Valley were simultaneously pressured from the west by the expansive Chippewa and Sioux in the upper Mississippi region. Hence, under vice-like pressure from several directions, the tribes increasingly concluded that they would have to coordinate their policies and be prepared to fight or perish.

The Shawnee leader Tecumseh and his brother, known as the Shawnee Prophet (Tenskwatawa), emerged determined to preserve the identity and territorial integrity of the tribes and their lands in the region between the Great Lakes and the Ohio River Valley. Tecumseh maintained that the Americans had been successful in depriving the Indians of their lands because the tribes had consistently failed to stand unified against external encroachments. Therefore, he argued, the tribes must create a meaningful confederation and agree not to cede additional lands to the United States without the concurrence of all the tribes in the union. Only in this way could the tribes negotiate with the Americans from a position of strength. Moreover, Tecumseh and his brother called upon the Indians to purge themselves of corrupting influences, such as alcohol, and return to traditional ways.

In 1808, as momentum gathered behind Tecumseh and his new confederation, he and his brother founded Prophetstown, located near the confluence of Tippecanoe Creek and the Wabash River. The Indian leaders hoped that Prophetstown would serve as a center of the confederation movement and that from it Tecumseh and his brother could influence the policies of the tribes throughout the region bounded by the Great Lakes, the Mississippi River, and the Ohio Valley. In addition, in 1808, Tecumseh visited the British at Fort Malden, across the US-Canadian border near Detroit. The British assured Tecumseh of their full support of the tribes’ combined efforts to form a confederation and to resist further American encroachments upon their lands. The British authorities, however, urged the Indian leaders not to be the ones to initiate hostilities along the frontier.

As a result of continued efforts by American authorities to detach additional Indian lands (culminating in the Treaty of Fort Wayne in 1809), American intransigence concerning the implementation of the various treaties negotiated since the Treaty of Fort Greenville, and, finally, continued encroachment by American frontiersmen into Indian territory, hostilities again erupted along the frontier in 1810. Both Tecumseh and the British attempted to ameliorate the crisis, but radical elements among the tribes pressed for more aggressive military action against the Americans.

During the summer of 1811, Tecumseh traveled south of the Ohio River in an effort to enlist the support of the Creek, Cherokee, and Choctaw tribes. The Creek expressed support for Tecumseh, but Cherokee and Choctaw leaders were reluctant to take actions that might provoke open warfare with the United States government.

With Tecumseh absent from his center of power north of the Ohio, Harrison decided to avail himself of the opportunity and attack the geographic heart of the confederation movement—Prophetstown. By November 6, 1811, Harrison’s force had moved to a position less than a mile from Prophetstown. The following day, on November 7, as Harrison had hoped, the Indians, unrestrained because of Tecumseh’s absence, attacked the American force and were severely defeated amid heavy fighting. Following this costly victory at the Battle of Tippecanoe, Harrison’s force destroyed Prophetstown before returning to their base of operations at Vincennes.

Following the Tippecanoe Campaign, the frontier war continued; eventually it was submerged in the context of the struggle between the United States and Great Britain in the War of 1812. Tecumseh was killed at the Battle of the Thames on October 5, 1813. In many respects, the death of this great Indian leader marked the end of the last real hope of effective Indian resistance to American settlement east of the Mississippi and the extinction of traditional Indian cultures in the eastern portion of the United States.

Bibliography

Edmunds, R. David. The Shawnee Prophet. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 2014. Print.

Lamphere, Peter. "The Life of Tecumseh: A Native War of Independence." International Socialist Review. Ctr. for Economic Research and Social Change, Jan. 2005. Web. 21 Apr. 2015.

Meyer, Cassie. Tecumseh. Chicago: Heinemann Library, 2008. Print.

Sugden, John. Tecumseh: A Life. New York: Holt, 1999. Print.

"Tecumseh's Uprising." Clarke Historical Library. Central Michigan U, n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2015.