Tecumseh (c. 1768–1813)

Shawnee Leader

Native Americans living in the aftermath of the American Revolution were disillusioned by the actions of the new U.S. government, which acted to promote settlement of areas the British had reserved for native tribes, and which gave sanction to land transfers and sales of dubious legality. Tecumseh, bolstered by the religious prophecies of his brother, the “Shawnee Prophet,” attempted to revive Joseph Brant's dream of a confederation of Native Americans able to repulse attempts to erode their traditional lands, and to return to a more spiritually pure world. Tecumseh's innate military talents as well as his dignity and humane conduct made him both a figure of admiration and a serious danger to American power in the Old Northwest.

Born circa 1768 in present-day Ohio or West Virginia, but possibly during a family visit to Creek lands in Alabama, Tecumseh (“Shooting Star”) was the second son of Pukeshinwau, a Kispoko Shawnee, and his wife Methoataaskee, a Pekowi Shawnee. Although the family had returned to Ohio in 1758, they maintained extensive connections to their Creek and Alabama relatives and allies, connections which Tecumseh later called upon in his efforts to foster multi-tribal cooperation. Tecumseh grew up in the tense situation that resulted from the ceding of Ohio land to white settlement by the Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1768). Tecumseh's father was killed in a clash with Col. Andrew Lewis at Point Pleasant in October 1774, and the family was left in difficult circumstances. Tecumseh became a skilled hunter and an accomplished warrior under the tutelage of his elder brother Cheesekau, and probably saw his first battle alongside him in 1786 at Mad River when elements of the Shawnee attacked flatboats led [Page 827]by Benjamin Logan. In 1788, the family traveled south and reconnected with their associations among the Cherokee and Chickamauga. Tecumseh suffered a broken leg during the journey that left him with permanent damage.

Returning to Ohio with Cheesekau in 1791, Tecumseh saw the disastrous results of American settlement in the region for the Shawnee and quickly joined forces with the local resistance. Cheesekau was killed in Cumberland in 1792 during a raid. Though Tecumseh was not present at the defeat of Arthur St. Clair on the Wabash, he survived the battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. Having successfully escaped capture, he became embittered at the refusal of the British to give him sanctuary at Fort Miami. Throughout the late 1790s, Tecumseh lived as an independent chief, building a reputation for his generosity and his good treatment of captives. During this period, he sired his only son, Paukeesa, by the Shawnee–white Mamate, in 1796. Tecumseh was known for marrying frequently and briefly, but to a single woman at a time, which was unusual for the Shawnee.

In 1805, an epidemic—probably of smallpox or influenza—threw the Shawnee into crisis. Tecumseh's youngest brother, Tenskwatawa (“The Prophet”), who had been previously a marginal member of the community, emerged as a spiritual leader, demanding stricter moral standards and separation from the ways of life brought by the white settlers. Tenskwatawa's directives drew supporters to Shawnee settlements at Greenville and Prophetstown, which, despite Tecumseh's eloquent assurances of peace, alarmed both the territorial governor, William Henry Harrison, and white settlers in the region. Foreseeing the possibility of war between Britain and America, Tecumseh began to contact tribes alienated by the 1809 Treaty of Fort Wayne (including the Kickapoo, Potawatomi, Sac and Fox, Winnebago, Miami, and Ottawa) in order to present a program of collective negotiation with the whites and a revival of confederation. He also contacted the British at Fort Malden for clandestine support. Tecumseh was an impressive diplomat and orator, and he made use of widely recognized tribal symbols like the calumet and wampum to overcome language and tribal rivalries. The tribes' dependence on American annuities for financial and material support, however, proved difficult to overcome.

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