Tecumseh's Death
Tecumseh, a prominent Shawnee chief and statesman, was born circa 1768 in present-day Ohio. He is well-known for his efforts to unite various Native American tribes to resist the encroachment of American settlers on their lands. Tecumseh believed in the principle of common land ownership among tribes, arguing that no single chief could sell land without the consent of all. His efforts led to the establishment of a confederation aimed at halting American expansion, which faced significant challenges, including the defeat at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811.
During the War of 1812, Tecumseh allied with the British, seeking to leverage their support for the Native cause. He rose to the rank of brigadier general and led a coalition of 2,000 Native warriors. However, he met his end on October 5, 1813, at the Battle of the Thames, a conflict that ultimately resulted in an American victory. Tecumseh's death signified a pivotal moment in Native American resistance, marking the decline of organized opposition to U.S. expansion in the northeastern United States. His legacy remains significant in discussions of Native American history and the struggle for land rights.
Tecumseh's Death
Tecumseh's Death
Tecumseh, the Shawnee chief and statesman whose federation of Native Americans was almost successful in halting the United States's intrusion into their lands, was probably born in 1768 in a Shawnee village near what was later Springfield, Ohio. His exact date of birth in uncertain.
As a youth, Tecumseh roamed far and wide in hunting expeditions through what would later be called the Northwest Territory. This region included what are now Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. It was a period in which various natives tribes, backed by the British in Canada, sought to check the territorial expansion of the new United States. The aim was to contain frontier settlements south of the Ohio River. Tecumseh himself participated in attacks on Americans traveling down the river. A skilled warrior, he became noted for his role in the Northwest border wars. He also became noted for his humanitarianism, exhibiting clemency towards captives and persuading the Shawnee to abandon their practice of torturing prisoners.
As pioneer settlements spread north of the Ohio River, native opposition stiffened, and was met by various expeditions sent by the American government. One of these, headed by General Anthony Wayne in 1794, defeated the natives at Fallen Timbers, Ohio, and paved the way for the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. However, although the treaty opened much of Ohio and other scattered tracts to settlement and supposedly clarified the boundary between native and nonnative lands in the process, all did not go smoothly. In the ensuing conferences between the tribes and settlers, Tecumseh became a leading figure by 1800.
He foresaw the trend of history more clearly than the leaders of many other tribes, realizing that if the tribes were to remain strong they could not afford to retreat any further. Backed by long tradition, he argued that since all tribes held their grounds in common, no one tribe or chief had the authority to sell or cede land without the agreement of all. He felt one might with as much logic attempt to sell the air or clouds, also natural gifts. Therefore, he held, no sale or cession of native lands could be valid without a consensus of the tribes.
When the United States government ignored this position, Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa set about organizing a vast confederation of tribes, which they hoped would stem the American advance. The program began with the organization of certain groups of Shawnee into what was called “the Prophet's town,” initially located near Greenville, Ohio, and later transferred to a spot near the juncture of the Tippecanoe and Wabash Rivers a few miles above the site of Lafayette, Indiana.
Tecumseh traveled from Wisconsin to Florida urging other tribes to join his confederation. The growth of his coalition was disquieting to Northwest settlers, although Tecumseh pledged to keep the peace. This pledge depended upon the abandonment of certain cessions of native territory, particularly an 1809 agreement that took certain hunting grounds, and on the acceptance of Tecumseh's principle concerning the common ownership of land. William Henry Harrison, the governor of the large Indiana Territory, refused to accept these conditions.
On November 6, 1811, Harrison camped with 1,000 men about a mile away from “the Prophet's town.” Apprehensive in Tecumseh's absence, Tenskwatawa decided against leaving matters to chance. He attacked the encampment at dawn on November 7, thus beginning the famous battle of Tippecanoe. By the end of the next day, Harrison had surmounted heavy losses while forcingthe natives back and razing their village. Nearly three decades later the battle furnished a slogan, Tippecanoe and Tyler Too, on which Harrison and his running-mate successfully campaigned for the presidency and vice-presidency of the United States. The battle caused the loss of Tenskwatawa's personal influence and largely destroyed the confederacy built by Tecumseh. At a native council in May of the next year, Tecumseh sadly defied any “living creature to say we ever advised anyone…to make war on our white brothers.” Governor Harrison, he pointed out, “made war on my people in my absence.”
During the War of 1812, Tecumseh sided with the British, a position from which he hoped to obtain some advantage for his people. He received the rank of brigadier general in the British army and commanded 2,000 native allies. When British fortunes took a turn for the worse after Oliver Hazard Perry's victory in the battle of Lake Erie, Tecumseh reluctantly covered the retreat of Colonel Henry Proctor, whom he mistrusted and regarded as a coward. “You always told us, that you would never draw your foot off British ground” said Tecumseh to Proctor, “but now…we see you are drawing back.…Our lives are in the hands of the Great Spirit. We are determined to defend our lands, and if it be his will, we wish to leave our bones upon them.”
Tecumseh's words forced Proctor to take a stand against the Americans near Chatham, Ontario. In the ensuing engagement, known as the battle of the Thames on October 5, 1813, the Americans under Harrison were victorious. Tecumseh lost his life in the battle. Rather ironically, he had prepared for the engagement by shedding his British uniform in favor of his native buckskins. His death marked the end of the last desperate stand of the tribes of the northeastern United States against the steady westward advance of American pioneers.