Tecumseh
- For other uses of the name, see Tecumseh (disambiguation).
Tecumseh (1768–October 5, 1813), also known as Tecumtha, was a Native American leader of the Shawnee. One of the most important Native Americans in history, he spent much of his life attempting to rally disparate Indian tribes in a mutual defense of Indian lands, which culminated in his death in the War of 1812.
Youth
The exact date of Tecumseh's birth is impossible to verify, but 1768 is the generally accepted estimate. He was born in the Ohio Country, probably in one of the Shawnee towns along the Scioto River. The many legends about Tecumseh in later years included a tale about his birth during a portentous shooting star or comet. The subsequent lore about Tecumseh being named after this shooting star ("the panther") is unlikely; biographer John Sugden suggests that Tecumseh's name (which does indeed refer to a panther) was a conventional reference to the family phratry.
Tecumseh was a son of Pukeshinwah, who was killed in the Battle of Point Pleasant when Tecumseh was a child. The American Revolutionary War loomed large in Tecumseh's youth. Many Shawnee villages were destroyed by Americans in that war, including what was likely Tecumseh's boyhood home in the Battle of Piqua in 1780.
Alliance
In the late 1780s and together with his brother (Elskwatawa or Tenskwatawa, called the Prophet) Tecumseh attempted to form an alliance of the Native inhabitants of the upper Midwest and Ohio River valley and Great Lakes area against the expansion of White settlers of the United States of America. The alliance had a number of membership changes, but at one time or another it included representatives from the Shawnee, Canadian Iroquois, Wyandot, Mingo, Ottawa, Chickamauga, Miami, Kickapoo, Lenni Lenape, Ojibway, Potawatomi, Fox, Sauk, and Mascouten nations. Tecumseh's alliance had its capital at Prophets Town, just a few miles north of Lafayette, Indiana near the present-day town of Battle Ground.
Battle of Tippecanoe
In 1811, Tecumseh left Tippecanoe leaving his brother in charge, while he journeyed south to meet with representatives of the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Cherokee nations to enlist them in his alliance of native tribes. On November 7, 1811, a U.S. force under the command of future President William Henry Harrison attacked Elskwatawa at the Battle of Tippecanoe, wiping out the Native camp and putting an end to Tecumseh's hope of a broad Native alliance. Tension was mounting between the United States and Britain, and the War of 1812 broke out early the following year. Tecumseh took a force of Natives north, where they enlisted as British allies.
Detroit surrender
Tecumseh joined British Major-General Sir Isaac Brock to force the surrender of Detroit in August 1812, a major victory for the British. However, Commander Oliver Hazard Perry's victory on Lake Erie, late in the summer of 1813, cut British supply lines and prompted them to withdraw along the Thames Valley. The British burned the public buildings in Detroit and retreated into Upper Canada. Tecumseh followed, fighting rearguard actions to slow the American advance.
Later years and death
The next British commander, Major-General Henry Proctor did not have the same working relationship with Tecumseh as the latter had with Brock. Proctor failed to appear at Chatham as expected by the Natives. Harrison crossed into Upper Canada in October, 1813 and won a victory over the British and Natives at the Battle of the Thames near Chatham, Ontario. Tecumseh was killed in the battle and, shortly after, the tribes of his confederacy surrendered to Harrison in Detroit.
Curse
Tradition holds that Tecumseh had cursed his victors and Tecumseh's curse has been a recurring legend seeking to explain the death of a number of Presidents, including Harrison, while in office.
Tributes
In June 1930, a bronze replica of the figurehead of ship-of-the-line USS Delaware was presented by the Class of 1891 to the United States Naval Academy. This bust, one of the most famous relics on the campus, has been widely identified as Tecumseh. However, when it adorned the American man-of-war, it commemorated not Tecumseh but Tamanend, the revered Delaware chief who welcomed William Penn to America when he arrived in Delaware country on 2 October 1682.
Despite his defeat, Tecumseh is honoured in Canada as a tragic hero who was a brilliant war chief who, along with Brock, saved Canada from American invasion when all seemed hopeless, but could not save his own people. Amoung the tributes is his placing in the The Greatest Canadian list where Tecumseh is ranked #37, the only full blood Native American so honoured.
Namings
Tecumseh, Michigan, Tecumseh, Nebraska, Tecumseh, Oklahoma, Tecumseh, Ontario, the ballistic missile submarine USS Tecumseh (SSBN-628), and the Union US Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman were all named after him. Tecumseh Power Company is a manufacturer of small gasoline engines and transmissions.
Quotations
"Then listen to the voice of duty, of honour, of nature and of your endangered country. Let us form one body, one head and defend to the last warrior our country, our homes, our liberty, and the graves of our fathers." -- Tecumseh, circa 1813
"A more ... gallant Warrior does not, I believe, exist." -- Major-General Sir Isaac Brock
Tecumseh in fiction
Tecumseh is one of the major characters in Orson Scott Card's alternate history fantasy series of novels The Tales of Alvin Maker (especially the second book, Red Prophet. In those books he is called Ta-Kumsaw.
See also
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