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INDIANA TRAILS
WHY
TECUMTHA FOUGHT
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No Indian's name is more inseparably linked to the history
of Indiana than that
of "Tecumseh," and none is
more familiar to American
readers, but it is remarkable how little is definitely known about this
celebrated man.
As to his death, there are three conflicting accounts, each verified by
the statements
of alleged eye-witnesses. As
to his birth, McKenney and
Hall give a romantic
story of his
descent from the daughter of an English Governor of Georgia or South
Carolina, who took a fancy to
marry a Creek warrior; but the
historians of those States do not mention this unusual event, and
Benjamin Drake, from whom McKenney and Hall state they had their
information, says that this
story was concocted by the
Prophet to give importance to
his family.
Drake probably is right in his statement that Tecumtha was born at the
old Shawnee town of Piqua, on
Mad River, Ohio ; that his father
was Puck-e-shin'-wau
(something that drops), a Shawnee of the Kiscopoke clan, and that his
mother was
Me-tho-a-tas'-ke, Shawnee of
the Turtle totem. Her name signifies
a turtle laying eggs in the sand.
But Drake says the name is properly "Tecumtha," and that it means "a
shooting star." Other authorities say it means "a comet,"
"a panther leaping on its
prey,"
and "an obstacle in
the path." Frank A. Thackery, superintendent and agent at Shawnee,
Okla., writes to me: "The proper pronunciation of
this name is Te-cum-tha, with
the accent sometimes on the
first syllable and sometimes on
the last, depending on the way in which the word is used. The meaning
of the word in the Shawnee language is 'going
crossways,' and it is used in
the sense of a person
crossing your path for the purpose of disputing your passage."
Other Indian authorities give it as "crossing over," "going across,"
"flying over," any of which explains the origin of the
commonly given meanings.
Gatschet conjectured that
these meanings might be references to the fact that Tecumtha belonged
to the Man-e-tu'-wi-mis-si-pis'-si
or Spirit Panther totem. Figuratively
this
totem stands for a meteor
or a comet.
There is little truth in the common ideas of the cause of Tecumtha's
hostility. He
was a warrior, but he was not
like the defiant Seminole who
is supposed to have said : "
I
battle for the love I have
To see the white man fall."
Tecumtha was also
a statesman, and
his chief end in life was to
prevent a wrong to his
people. The cause of this originated in the treaty of Greenville. At
that time
General Wayne forced the
assembled tribes to accept a
boundary line which gave most of Ohio to the whites and threw the Ohio
tribes back into Indiana. The
Ohio Indians — Wyandots,
Ottawas, Six Nations of Sandusky, Delawares and Shawnees — unanimously
asked General Wayne to divide the land
between the several tribes.
They said, in a formal
address, as shown by our own official records, "We wish to inform you
of the
impropriety of not fixing the
bounds of every nation's
rights; for, the manner it now lies in, would bring on disputes forever
between the different tribes of Indians, and we wish to be by
ourselves, that we may be
acquainted how far we might
extend our claims, that no
one may intrude on us, nor we upon them."
But General Wayne declined to do this, and with remarkable disregard of
the point
of the request said : "You
Indians best know your
respective boundaries," and
urged them : "Let no nation or nations invade,
molest or disturb any other
nation or nations in the
hunting grounds they have heretofore been accustomed to live and hunt
upon,
within the boundary which
shall now be agreed on."
This decision they were forced to accept, and therefore the Ohio
Indians were thrown
back among the more Western
tribes without having any
lands set off for
them. They mixed
largely with the Indian tribes, many of the Delawares and Shawnees
making their homes in the hitherto unoccupied
parts of southern Indiana,
but they advanced the theory
that under the new arrangement the land belonged to all the tribes in
common,
and this was generally
accepted.
In 1802 Governor Harrison wrote: "There appears to be an agreement
amongst them that no
proposition which relates to their lands can be acceded to without the
consent of all the tribes."
But the only treaty in which he undertook to get this general consent
was the one of
June 7, 1803, and its cessions
of land were very slight —
four miles square at the salt springs
in southeastern Illinois, and four tracts each one mile square on the
roads
from Vincennes to Kaskaskia
and Clarksville, for the
location of taverns.
In return for this the United States was to distribute 150 bushels of
salt annually
among all the tribes, and to
give free ferriage to all of
the Indians at the ferries that
might be established on these roads. This treaty
was signed by three Shawnees,
but in no other of Harrison's
treaties did any Shawnee join,
or any Wyandot, or any Ohio Delaware, and apparently they were not
consulted at all, although by 1806 he had negotiated
five other treaties for the
cession of about 46,000
square miles of land in Illinois and southern Indiana.
These treaties were made with the "chiefs and head warriors" of various
tribes, and four of them had only five Indian signers
each. It was these treaties
that raised the wrath of
Tecumtha and his sympathizers, for
not only did none of the Ohio Indians consent to them, but none
received any
part of the compensation,
although the Indiana and
Illinois Indians had shared equally in the compensation at the treaty
of
Greenville. It was clear that
the Shawnees and other Ohio
Indians were being shut out entirely; and when the treaties of 1809
were made, by which 3,000,000 acres were added to the cessions,
Tecumtha became defiant
and said that these treaties
should not be carried into
effect.
It was then that Tecumtha came to Vincennes and had his dramatic
interview with
General Harrison. He came to
Vincennes on August 12, 1810,
with a retinue of 75 warriors,
and for several days there were interviews and councils between him and
Governor Harrison. On the 20th an open- air council was in progress
before the
Governor's residence.
Tecumtha made a long speech
in which he urged that the treaties had been made by but few people,
and that they had no right to dispose of the common
heritage. He threatened
vengeance on the chiefs who
had signed the treaties if they
were not rescinded, and he
charged Harrison with having
incited the trouble.
He said : "
It is you that are pushing them on to do mischief. You endeavor to make
distinctions. You wish to
prevent the Indians to do as
we wish them, to unite and let
them consider their lands as the common
property of the whole. You
take tribes aside and advise them
not to come into this measure; and
until our design is accomplished we do not wish to accept your
invitation to go
and see the President. The
reason I tell you this is,
you want, by your distinctions of Indian tribes, in allotting to each a
particular
tract of land, to make them
to war with each other. You
never see an Indian come and endeavor to make the white people do so.
You are continually driving the red people ; when,
at last, you will drive them
into the great lake, where
they can't either stand or work." He declared that the warriors
represented the
will of the Indians, and that
unless the treaties were
rescinded he would call a great council of the tribes to deal with the
treaty chiefs.
At the close of
his speech Governor
Harrison began to reply. He
was dwelling on the uniform
justice which the United States had shown in its dealings with the
Indians, when Tecumtha sprang
to his feet and denounced the
statement as untrue, and charged
that Harrison and the United States
had cheated and imposed on the Indians. With defiant gesticulation he
said to the interpreter, Barron, "Tell him he
lies." Barron hesitated and
sought to soften the expression,
but Tecumtha reiterated, "No, no.
Tell him he lies." But the stir interrupted the proceedings. Several of
the warriors arose and stood in a threatening attitude.
General Gibson, Secretary of
the Territory, who understood
the Shawnee language, directed
Lieutenant Jennings to advance with
the guard of twelve men, who had
stood at a little distance. As soon as order was restored Tecumtha's
words were translated, and Governor Harrison
indignantly reproached him
for his conduct, and ordered
him to return to his camp, saying that the council fire was
extinguished and
he would hold no further
communication with him.
Abashed by this firm stand, the Indians sullenly withdrew.
With cooling time, Tecumtha realized that he had made a diplomatic
blunder. In the morning Barron visited him in his camp,
and found him very desirous
of a
further inter-, view and
an amicable settlement. Governor Harrison consented to the interview on
condition that Tecumtha would
apologize for his insult, and
in the afternoon the council was
resumed. With perfect dignity, but in a respectful manner, Tecumtha
disclaimed any intention to offer insult, and
explained that he had perhaps
been misinformed as to the
sentiments of the white people, who, he had been told, were divided in
their
opinion as to the treaties ;
but he said he knew they already
had more land than they could use, "as he had sent some of his men to
reconnoiter the settlements, and had found that
the lands towards the Ohio
were not settled at all."
Governor Harrison then asked him to state explicitly - whether the
Kickapoos would accept their annuities under the
late treaty, and whether the
surveyors who might be sent
to run the boundary line, under the treaty of 1809, would be interfered
with.
To this Tecumtha responded that he was authorized to say that the
Kickapoos would not accept
their annuities; and, as to
the boundaries, "I want the
present boundary line to continue.
Should you cross it, I assure you it will be productive of bad
consequences." The council
was then brought to a close.
On the next day, Governor Harrison, accompanied only by Barron, visited
Tecumtha's camp, where he was politely
received, and another long
interview was held,
but without
different result. Tecumtha restated his position, and when Governor
Harrison assured him that his claims would never be
admitted by the President, he
replied: "
Well, as the great chief is to determine the matter, I hope the Great
Spirit will
put sense enough into his
head to induce him to direct
you to give up the land. It is true,
he is so far off he will not be injured by
the war. He may sit still in
his 'town, and drink his
wine, while you and I will have to fight it out."
This closed the conferences of 1810, but, in June, 1811, Governor
Harrison sent a message to Tecumtha and The Prophet, warning them of
the consequences
of
hostilities. To this Tecumtha replied, protesting that no hostilities
were intended, and saying that he would come to Vincennes in hope of a
peaceable adjustment of all
differences. In July the
Indians began to assemble about
twenty miles north of Vincennes, and when Tecumtha joined them they
numbered about 300, of whom
one-tenth were women and
children. This gathering caused apprehension, and Governor Harrison
sent a message disapproving it. Tecumtha
replied that he had only
twenty-four men in his party,
and "the rest had come of their own accord; but that everything should
be settled to the satisfaction of the
Governor, on his arrival at
Vincennes." To be prepared for
any emergency, the militia of the county, amounting to 750 men, were
called out, and guards were stationed about the town.
It was charged, and generally believed by the whites, that Tecumtha
contemplated treachery. At this time about the only friends the Indians
had in southern
Indiana
were the Shakers, who
had a settlement some fifteen
miles north of Vincennes. They had a mission to the Shawnees in 1807,
and
apparently were on much the same friendly terms with the Indians
as the Quakers have
usually been. The Indians who
accompanied Tecumtha
assembled near their settlement. One of the leading Shakers made this
record: "
These were trying
times with us. We had use for
all the wisdom and patience we possessed.
These hungry creatures were about
us nearly three weeks, singing and dancing to the Great Spirit. Some of
the time there were upward of two hundred, all
peaceable, showed no abuse to
any one, would drink no
whiskey, and never to our knowledge took to the value of one cucumber
without leave. Nor could we discover in them the least hostile
symptoms, still declaring
their innocence, grieved that
the people would not believe
them — saying to the people: 'Look, see our squaws and children. We do
not go to war so. We only come here because the Governor sent for us.'
But notwithstanding
all this the people moved into
forts and into town, bag and
baggage, all around us. Oh, how
often did my soul cry out within me, Lord, God ! What can ail this
people ?
Surely the prophecy of Esdras
is fulfilled upon them. Wit has hid itself from them, and understanding
withdrawn itself into its
secret chamber.' "
But whether treachery was meditated or not, Tecumtha was resolute in
his
opposition to the treaties.
It was a hopeless situation. On
the one side Tecumtha
contended for the same principle that we maintained in the
civil war — that the Indian
lands belonged to all the
Indians in common and that no one tribe could dispose of any part of it
without
the consent of all the
tribes. On the other hand, Governor
Harrison held, as he stated to the next Legislature: "
Are then the
extinguishments of native title,
which are at once so beneficial to the Indian, the Territory and the
United
States, to be suspended on
the account of the intrigues of
a few individuals? Is one of the fairest portions of the globe to
remain in
a state of nature, the haunt
of a few wretched savages,
when it seems destined by the Creator
to give support to a large population, and to be the seat of
civilization, of
science, and of true religion
?"
But the existence of these two theories on a frontier, even without
formal war, meant
trouble. There were scarcely any Indian hostilities in the Northwest
from the
treaty of Greenville until 1803, but in the decade
following southern Indiana
was the scene of many a
bloody tragedy. Prowling bands of warriors fell on defenseless
settlers,
killing men and carrying
women and children captive. And
many of the whites did not hesitate to kill an Indian at any favorable
opportunity, without regard
to his hostile or peaceable attitude.
The danger was so great and so constant that the territorial
authorities caused
blockhouses to be built at
various points, and maintained
companies of rangers,
who patrolled the established lines of travel to protect
immigrants. It was Indiana's
notable period of border
warfare, and when it ended the
white man's theory was triumphant — established by blood and steel.
Tecumtha did not live to see the end, but he never gave up his
cherished hope. It
was not without reason that
he charged Governor Harrison
with trying to make
war between the Indian tribes, for the Governor's policy alienated the
Indiana tribes from
Tecumtha. They received the
annuities and other compensation for the lands, whose sale he opposed,
and there were very few of
them in arms against the
Americans, either at Tippecanoe
or in the war of 1812.
Realizing that his forces were not sufficient for successful war,
disappointed
repeatedly in his efforts to
secure Indian allies, he
hailed with joy the advent of war with
the British and enrolled with them.
One can easily imagine the
chagrin with which he saw
these allies being driven back by the Americans, and can understand the
bitterness of his speech to
General Proctor at Malden, when
the latter was preparing to retreat. His life-long dream came back as
he begged Proctor to turn the arms and
ammunition over to the
Indians and let them stay and
fight.
" Listen," said Tecumtha,
"when war was declared our
Father stood up and gave us the
tomahawk, and told us that he was then ready to fight and strike the
Americans — that he wanted our assistance and that we would certainly
get our land back that the
Americans had taken from us. *
* * Father, you have the arms
and ammunition which our
Great Father sent for his red children. If you have an idea of going
away, give
them to us. You may go, and
welcome. Our lives are in the
hands of the Great Spirit. We are determined to defend our land, and if
it
be His will, we wish to leave
our bones upon it."
And undoubtedly he went into the battle of the Thames with that feeling
— with the
conviction that the supreme
hour had come when all must
be won or lost, and
gave his life
as the crowning sacrifice of his life's effort.
And yet this concession of Tecumtha's honesty of purpose is no
reflection on
Governor Harrison, but only a
presentation of the different
point of view. Harrison
always warmly
resented every charge of unfairness on his part. At the treaty of 1814,
he was especially urgent that the Indians should point out any matter
in which he
had ever deceived them or
done them injustice.
At that time Harrison said as to Tecumtha's position : "
After the treaty was made the Prophet and his brother, who had no right
to
participate in it, began to
propagate the principle that
the whole of the lands on this
continent were the common property of all the tribes
and that no sale could take place or would be valid unless all the
tribes were
parties to it. This idea is
so absurd and so new, too,
that it could never be admitted by the Seventeen Fires, either on their
own
account or on that of the
tribes who live near to them
and whose rights they have guaranteed ; and you all know, for you were
present at the discussion between Tecumseh and myself, on the subject
of those lands,
that this was the only claim
he was able or ever attempted
to set up."
Very true. Tecumtha offered a claim that was of no value under our
laws, but under this construction the Ohio Indians were
the only ones who ever
surrendered
their old homes
to our Government without receiving some territory that they might call
their
own, elsewhere. Under it they
were made absolutely homeless,
except as they might be tolerated by the other tribes.
It is not strange that they did not take this view, nor that they
protested against it. Looking back now, it is not hard to do
them this justice. Indeed,
when
contemplating such a
life as Tecumtha's, one may easily sympathize with the sentiment of
Wendell Phillips as to the
Indian: "
Neither Greece,
nor Germany, nor the French,
nor the Scotch, can show a prouder record. And instead of searing it
over
with infamy and illustrated
epithets, the future will
recognize it as a glorious record of a race that never melted out and
never died away, but stood up manfully, man by man, foot by foot, and
fought it out for the
land God gave him against the
world, which seemed to be
poured out over him. I love the
Indian, because there is something in the soil and climate that made
him that is
fated, in the thousand years
that are coming, to mold us."
There are few Americans who have not accorded admiration to Tecumtha's
manly character, but perhaps none has paid
higher tribute than Charles
A. Jones,
the Cincinnati poet,
in whose poem to "Tecumseh, the Last King of the Ohio," occur these
stanzas :
Art thou a patriot? — so was he — His breast
was Freedom's holiest shrine ;
And as thou bendest there thy knee, His spirit will unite
with thine; All that a man can give, he. gave —
His life — the country of his sires From the
oppressor's grasp to save — In vain — quenched are his nation's fires.
Oh, softly fall the summer dew, The tears of
Heaven upon his sod, For he in life and death was true,
Both to his country
and his God ; For, oh, if God
to man has given,
From his bright home beyond the skies One
feeling that's akin to Heaven, 'Tis his who for his country dies.