among the Ojibwa who had taken part in the revival. According to their
story the ambassadors of the new revelation appeared at the different
villages, acting strangely and with their faces painted black—perhaps
to signify their character as messengers from the world of shades.
They told the people that they must light a fire with two dry sticks
in each of their principal settlements, and that this fire must
always be kept sacred and burning. They predicted the speedy return
of the old Indian life, and asserted that the prophet would cause the
dead to rise from the grave. The new belief took sudden and complete
possession of the minds of the Ojibwa and spread “like wildfire” from
end to end of their widely extended territory, and even to the remote
northern tribes in alliance with the Cree and Asiniboin. The strongest
evidence of their implicit obedience to the new revelation was given
by their attention to the command to throw away their medicine bags,
the one thing which every Indian holds most sacred. It is said that
the shores of Lake Superior, in the vicinity of the great village of
Shagawaumikong (Bayfield, Wisconsin), were strewn with these medicine
bags, which had been cast into the water. At this ancient capital of
the tribe the Ojibwa gathered in great numbers, to dance the dances and
sing the songs of the new ritual, until a message was received from
the prophet inviting them to come to him at Detroit, where he would
explain in person the will of the Master of Life. This was in 1808.
The excitement was now at fever heat, and it was determined to go in
a body to Detroit. It is said that 150 canoe loads of Ojibwa actually
started on this pilgrimage, and one family even brought with them a
dead child to be restored to life by the prophet. They had proceeded
a considerable distance when they were met by an influential French
trader, who reported, on the word of some who had already visited the
prophet’s camp and returned, that the devotees there were on the brink
of starvation—which was true, as the great multitude had consumed their
entire supply of provisions, and had been so occupied with religious
ceremonies that they had neglected to plant their corn. It was also
asserted that during the prophet’s frequent periods of absence from
the camp, when he would disappear for several days, claiming on his
return that he had been to the spirit world in converse with the Master
of Life, that he was really concealed in a hollow log in the woods.
This is quite probable, and entirely consistent with the Indian theory
of trances and soul pilgrimages while the body remains unconscious in
one spot. These reports, however, put such a damper on the ardor of
the Ojibwa that they returned to their homes and gradually ceased to
think about the new revelation. As time went on a reaction set in, and
those who had been most active evangelists of the doctrine among the
tribe became most anxious to efface the remembrance of it. One good,
however, resulted to the Ojibwa from the throwing away of the poisonous
compounds formerly in common use by the lower order of doctors, and
secret poisoning became almost unknown. (_Warren, 2._)
When the celebrated traveler Catlin went among the prairie tribes some
thirty years later, he found that the prophet’s emissaries—he says the
prophet himself, which is certainly a mistake—had carried the living
fire, the sacred image, and the mystic strings (see portrait and
description) even to the Blackfeet on the plains of the Saskatchewan,
going without hindrance among warring tribes where the name of the
Shawano had never been spoken, protected only by the reverence that
attached to their priestly character. There seems no doubt that by
this time they had developed the plan of a confederacy for driving
back the whites, and Catlin asserts that thousands of warriors among
those remote tribes had pledged themselves to fight under the lead of
Tecumtha at the proper time. His account of the prophet’s methods in
the extreme northwest agrees with what Tanner has reported from the
Ojibwa country. (_Catlin, 1._) But disaster followed him like a shadow.
Rivals, jealous of his success, came after him to denounce his plans as
visionary and himself as an impostor. The ambassadors were obliged to
turn back to save their lives and retrace their way in haste to the far
distant Wabash, where the fatal battle of Tippecanoe and the death of
his great brother, Tecumtha, put an end to all his splendid dreams.
+Chapter IV+
TECUMTHA AND TIPPECANOE
These lands are ours. No one has a right to remove us, because we
were the first owners.—_Tecumtha to Wells, 1807._
The Great Spirit gave this great island to his red children.
He placed the whites on the other side of the big water. They
were not contented with their own, but came to take ours from
us. They have driven us from the sea to the lakes—we can go no
farther.—_Tecumtha, 1810._
The President may sit still in his town and drink his wine, while
you and I will have to fight it out.—_Tecumtha to Harrison, 1810._
And now we begin to hear of the prophet’s brother, Tecumtha, the most
heroic character in Indian history. Tecumtha, “The Meteor,” was the
son of a chief and the worthy scion of a warrior race. His tribe, the
Shawano, made it their proud boast that they of all tribes had opposed
the most determined resistance to the encroachments of the whites. His
father had fallen under the bullets of the Virginians while leading
his warriors at the bloody battle of Point Pleasant, in 1774. His
eldest and dearest brother had lost his life in an attack on a southern
frontier post, and another had been killed fighting by his side at
Wayne’s victory in 1794. What wonder that the young Tecumtha declared
that his flesh crept at the sight of a white man!
But his was no mean spirit of personal revenge; his mind was too
noble for that. He hated the whites as the destroyers of his race,
but prisoners and the defenseless knew well that they could rely on
his honor and humanity and were safe under his protection. When only
a boy—for his military career began in childhood—he had witnessed
the burning of a prisoner, and the spectacle was so abhorrent to his
feelings that by an earnest and eloquent harangue he induced the party
to give up the practice forever. In later years his name was accepted
by helpless women and children as a guaranty of protection even in
the midst of hostile Indians. Of commanding figure, nearly six feet
in height and compactly built; of dignified bearing and piercing eye,
before whose lightning even a British general quailed; with the fiery
eloquence of a Clay and the clear-cut logic of a Webster; abstemious in
habit, charitable in thought and action, brave as a lion, but humane
and generous withal—in a word, an aboriginal American knight—his life
was given to his people, and he fell at last, like his father and his
brothers before him, in battle with the destroyers of his nation, the
champion of a lost cause and a dying race.
His name has been rendered “The Shooting Star” and “The Panther
Crouching, or Lying in Wait.” From a reply to a letter of inquiry
addressed to Professor A. S. Gatschet, the well-known philologist, I
extract the following, which throws valuable light on the name system
and mythology of the Shawano, and shows also that the two renderings,
apparently so dissimilar, have a common origin:
Shawano personal names are nearly all clan names, and by their
interpretation the clan to which the individual or his father or
mother belongs may be discovered. Thus, when a man is called “tight
fitting” or “good fit,” he is of the _Rabbit_ clan, because the
fur fits the rabbit very tightly and closely. The name of Tecumtha
is derived from _nila ni tka′mthka_, “I cross the path or way of
somebody, or of an animal.” This indicates that the one so named
belongs to the clan of the round-foot or claw-foot animals, as
panther, lion, or even raccoon. Tecumtha and his brother belonged
to the clan of the manetuwi msipessi or “miraculous panther”
(_msi_, great, big; _pishiwi_, abbreviated _pessi_, cat, both
combined meaning the American lion). So the translations “panther
lying in wait,” or “crouching lion,” give only the sense of the
name, and no animal is named in it. But the _msi-pessi_, when the
epithet miraculous (_manetuwi_) is added to it, means a “celestial
tiger,” i. e., a meteor or shooting star. The _manetuwi msi-pessi_
lives in water only and is visible not as an animal, but as a
shooting star, and exceeding in size other shooting stars. This
monster gave name to a Shawano clan, and this clan, to which
Tecumtha belonged, was classed among the claw-foot animals also.
The quick motion of the shooting star was correctly likened to that
of a tiger or wildcat rushing upon his prey. Shooting stars are
supposed to be souls of great men all over America. The home of the
dead is always in the west, where the celestial bodies set, and
since meteors travel westward they were supposed to return to their
western home.
[Illustration: +Fig. 58+—Tecumtha.
One of the finest looking men I ever saw—about 6 feet high,
straight, with large, fine features, and altogether a daring,
bold-looking fellow.—_Captain Floyd, 1810._
One of those uncommon geniuses which spring up occasionally
to produce revolutions and overturn the established order of
things—_Governor Harrison._]
EXPLANATION OF FIGURE 58
This portrait is a copy of the one given by Lossing in his American
Revolution and the War of 1812, +III.+ (1875), page 283. He quotes
a description of Tecumtha’s personal appearance by a British
officer who saw him in 1812, and then goes on to give the history
of the portrait. “Captain J. B. Glegg, Brock’s aid-de-camp, has
left on record the following description of Tecumtha at that
interview: ‘Tecumseh’s appearance was very prepossessing; his
figure light and finely proportioned; his age I imagined to be
about five and thirty [he was about forty]; in height, 5 feet 9
or 10 inches; his complexion light copper; countenance oval, with
bright hazel eyes, bearing cheerfulness, energy, and decision.
Three small silver crosses or coronets were suspended from the
lower cartilage of his aquiline nose, and a large silver medallion
of George the Third, which I believe his ancestor had received from
Lord Dorchester when governor-general of Canada, was attached to
a mixed-colored wampum string and hung round his neck. His dress
consisted of a plain, neat uniform, tanned deerskin jacket, with
long trowsers of the same material, the seams of both being covered
with neatly cut fringe, and he had on his feet leather moccasins,
much ornamented with work made from the dyed quills of the
porcupine.’ The portrait of Tecumtha above given is from a pencil
sketch by Pierre Le Dru.... In this I have given only the head by
Le Dru. The cap was red, and in front was a single eagle’s feather,
black, with a white tip. The sketch of his dress (and the medal
above described), in which he appears as a brigadier-general of
the British army, is from a rough drawing, which I saw in Montreal
in the summer of 1858, made at Malden soon after the surrender of
Detroit, where the Indians celebrated that event by a grand feast.
It was only on gala occasions that Tecumtha was seen in full dress.
The sketch did not pretend to give a true likeness of the chief,
and was valuable only as a delineation of his costume. From the
two we are enabled to give a pretty faithful picture of the great
Shawnoese warrior and statesman as he appeared in his best mood.
When in full dress he wore a cocked hat and plume, but would not
give up his blue breechcloth, red leggings fringed with buckskin,
and buckskin moccasins.”
Tecumtha was now in the prime of manhood, being about 40 years of
age, and had already thought out his scheme of uniting all the tribes
in one grand confederation to resist the further encroachments of
the whites, on the principle that the Indians had common interests,
and that what concerned one tribe concerned all. As the tribes were
constantly shifting about, following the game in its migrations, he
held that no one tribe had any more than a possessory right to the
land while in actual occupancy, and that any sale of lands, to be
valid, must be sanctioned by all the tribes concerned. His claim was
certainly founded in justice, but the government refused to admit the
principle in theory, although repeatedly acting on it in practice,
for every important treaty afterward made in Mississippi valley was
a joint treaty, as it was found impossible to assign the ownership
of any considerable section to any one particular tribe. The Shawano
themselves hunted from the Cumberland to the Susquehanna. As a basal
proposition, Tecumtha claimed that the Greenville treaty, having been
forced on the Indians, was invalid; that the only true boundary was the
Ohio, as established in 1768, and that all future cessions must have
the sanction of all the tribes claiming rights in that region.
By this time there were assembled at Greenville to listen to the
teachings of the prophet hundreds of savages, representing all the
widely extended tribes of the late region and the great northwest, all
wrought up to the highest pitch of excitement over the prospect of
a revival of the old Indian life and the perpetuation of aboriginal
sovereignty. This was Tecumtha’s opportunity, and he was quick to
improve it. Even those who doubted the spiritual revelations could see
that they were in danger from the continued advances of the whites,
and were easily convinced that safety required that they should unite
as one people for the preservation of a common boundary. The pilgrims
carried back these ideas to their several tribes, and thus what was at
first a simple religious revival soon became a political agitation.
They were equally patriotic from the Indian point of view, and under
the circumstances one was almost the natural complement of the other.
All the evidence goes to show that the movement in its inception was
purely religious and peaceable; but the military spirit of Tecumtha
afterward gave to it a warlike and even aggressive character, and
henceforth the apostles of the prophet became also recruiting agents
for his brother. Tecumtha himself was too sensible to think that the
whites would be destroyed by any interposition of heaven, or that they
could be driven out by any combination of the Indians, but he did
believe it possible that the westward advance of the Americans could
be stopped at the Ohio, leaving his people in undisturbed possession
of what lay beyond. In this hope he was encouraged by the British
officials in Canada, and it is doubtful if the movement would ever have
become formidable if it had not been incited and assisted from across
the line.
In the spring of 1807 it was estimated that at Fort Wayne fifteen
hundred Indians had recently passed that post on their way to visit
the prophet, while councils were constantly being held and runners
were going from tribe to tribe with pipes and belts of wampum. It
was plain that some uncommon movement was going on among them, and
it also was evident that the British agents had a hand in keeping up
the excitement. The government became alarmed, and the crisis came
when an order was sent from the President to Tecumtha at Greenville
to remove his party beyond the boundary of 1795 (the Greenville
treaty). Trembling with excitement, Tecumtha rose and addressed his
followers in a passionate speech, dwelling on the wrongs of the Indians
and the continued encroachments of the whites. Then, turning to the
messenger, he said, “These lands are ours. No one has a right to
remove us, because we were the first owners. The Great Spirit above
has appointed this place for us, on which to light our fires, and
here we will remain. As to boundaries, the Great Spirit above knows
no boundaries nor will his red children acknowledge any.” (_Drake,
Tecumseh, 3._) From this time it was understood that the Indians were
preparing to make a final stand for the valley of the Ohio. The prophet
continued to arouse their enthusiasm by his inspired utterances, while
Tecumtha became the general and active organizer of the warriors.
At a conference with the governor of Ohio in the autumn of 1807 he
fearlessly denied the validity of the former treaties, and declared his
intention to resist the further extension of the white settlements on
Indian lands.
The next spring great numbers of Indians came down from the lakes to
visit Tecumtha and his brother, who, finding their following increasing
so rapidly, accepted an invitation from the Potawatomi and Kickapoo,
and removed their headquarters to a more central location on the
Wabash. The Delaware and Miami, who claimed precedence in that region
and who had all along opposed the prophet and Tecumtha, protested
against this move, but without effect. The new settlement, which was on
the western bank of the river, just below the mouth of the Tippecanoe,
was known to the Indians as Kehtipaquononk, “the great clearing,” and
was an old and favorite location with them. It had been the site of
a large Shawano village which had been destroyed by the Americans in
1791, and some years later the Potawatomi had rebuilt upon the same
place, to which they now invited the disciples of the new religion.
The whites had corrupted the name to Tippecanoe, and it now generally
became known as the Prophet’s town.
Nothing else of moment occurred during this year, but it was learned
that Tecumtha contemplated visiting the southern tribes in the near
future to enlist them also in his confederacy. In 1809, however,
rumors of an approaching outbreak began to fill the air, and it was
evident that the British were instigating the Indians to mischief in
anticipation of a war between England and the United States. Just at
this juncture the anger of Tecumtha’s party was still further inflamed
by the negotiation of treaties with four tribes by which additional
large tracts were ceded in Indiana and Illinois. The Indians now
refused to buy ammunition from the American traders, saying that they
could obtain all they wanted for nothing in another quarter. In view of
the signs of increasing hostility, Governor Harrison was authorized to
take such steps as might be necessary to protect the frontier. Tecumtha
had now gained over the Wyandot, the most influential tribe of the Ohio
region, the keepers of the great wampum belt of union and the lighters
of the council fire of the allied tribes. Their example was speedily
followed by the Miami, whose adhesion made the tribes of the Ohio and
the lakes practically unanimous. The prophet now declared that he would
follow in the steps of Pontiac, and called on the remote tribes to
assist those on the border to roll back the tide which would otherwise
overwhelm them all. In return, the Sauk and Fox sent word that they
were ready whenever he should say the word.
In the summer of 1810, according to a previous arrangement, Tecumtha,
attended by several hundred warriors, descended the river to Vincennes
to confer with Governor Harrison on the situation. The conference began
on the 15th of August and lasted three days. Tecumtha reiterated his
former claims, saying that in uniting the tribes he was endeavoring
to dam the mighty water that was ready to overflow his people. The
Americans had driven the Indians from the sea and threatened to push
them into the lakes; and, although he disclaimed any intention of
making war against the United States, he declared his fixed resolution
to insist on the old boundary and to oppose the further intrusion of
the whites on the lands of the Indians, and to resist the survey of
the lands recently ceded. He was followed by chiefs of five different
tribes, each of whom in turn declared that he would support the
principles of Tecumtha. Harrison replied that the government would
never admit that any section belonged to all the Indians in common,
and that, having bought the ceded lands from the tribes who were first
found in possession of them, it would defend its title by arms. To this
Tecumtha said that he preferred to be on the side of the Americans,
and that if his terms were conceded he would bring his forces to the
aid of the United States in the war which he knew was soon to break
out with England, but that otherwise he would be compelled to join
the British. The governor replied that he would state the case to the
President, but that it was altogether unlikely that he would consent to
the conditions. Recognizing the inevitable, Tecumtha expressed the hope
that, as the President was to determine the matter, the Great Spirit
would put sense into his head to induce him to give up the lands,
adding, “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.” The governor then requested that in the
event of an Indian war Tecumtha would use his influence to prevent the
practice of cruelties on women and children and defenseless prisoners.
To this he readily agreed, and the promise was faithfully kept.
(_Drake, Tecumseh, 4._)
The conference had ended with a tacit understanding that war must
come, and both sides began to prepare for the struggle. Soon after it
was learned that the prophet had sent belts to the tribes west of the
Mississippi, inviting them to join in a war against the United States.
Outrages on the Indians by settlers intensified the hostile feeling,
and the Delawares refused to deliver up a murderer until some of the
whites who had killed their people were first punished. Harrison
himself states that the Indians could rarely obtain satisfaction for
the most unprovoked wrongs. In another letter he says that Tecumtha
“has taken for his model the celebrated Pontiac, and I am persuaded he
will bear a favorable comparison in every respect with that far-famed
warrior.”
In July, 1811, Tecumtha again, visited Harrison at Vincennes. In the
course of his talk he said that the whites were unnecessarily alarmed,
as the Indians were only following the example set them by the colonies
in uniting for the furtherance of common interests. He added that he
was now on his way to the southern tribes to obtain their adhesion
also to the league, and that on his return in the spring he intended
to visit the President to explain his purposes fully and to clear away
all difficulties. In the meantime he expected that a large number of
Indians would join his colony on the Wabash during the winter, and to
avoid any danger of collision between them and the whites, he requested
that no settlements should be made on the disputed lands until he
should have an opportunity to see the President. To this Harrison
replied that the President would never give up a country which he
had bought from its rightful owners, nor would he suffer his people
to be injured with impunity. This closed the interview, and the next
day Tecumtha started with his party for the south to visit the Creek
and Choctaw. About the same time it was learned that the British had
sent a message to the prophet, telling him that the time had now come
for him to take up the hatchet, and inviting him to send a party to
their headquarters at Malden (now Amherstburg, Ontario) to receive the
necessary supplies. In view of these things Harrison suggested to the
War Department that opportunity be taken of Tecumtha’s absence in the
south to strike a blow against his confederacy. Continuing in the same
letter, he says of the great Indian leader:
The implicit obedience and respect which the followers of Tecumseh
pay to him is really astonishing, and more than any other
circumstance bespeaks him one of those uncommon geniuses which
spring up occasionally to produce revolutions and overturn the
established order of things. If it were not for the vicinity of the
United States, he would perhaps be the founder of an empire that
would rival in glory Mexico or Peru. No difficulties deter him. For
four years he has been in constant motion. You see him to-day on
the Wabash, and in a short time hear of him on the shores of Lake
Erie or Michigan or on the banks of the Mississippi, and wherever
he goes he makes an impression favorable to his purposes. He is now
upon the last round, to put a finishing stroke to his work. I hope,
however, before his return that that part of the fabric which he
considered complete will be demolished, and even its foundations
rooted up. (_Drake, Tecumseh, 5._)
On this trip Tecumtha went as far as Florida and engaged the Seminole
for his confederacy. Then, retracing his steps into Alabama, he came
to the ancient Creek town of Tukabachi, on the Tallapoosa, near the
present site of Montgomery. What happened here is best told in the
words of McKenney and Hall, who derived their information from Indians
at the same town a few years later:
He made his way to the lodge of the chief called the Big Warrior.
He explained his object, delivered his war talk, presented a bundle
of sticks, gave a piece of wampum and a war hatchet—all which the
Big Warrior took—when Tecumthé, reading the spirit and intentions
of the Big Warrior, looked him in the eye, and, pointing his finger
toward his face, said: “Your blood is white. You have taken my
talk, and the sticks, and the wampum, and the hatchet, but you
do not mean to fight. I know the reason. You do not believe the
Great Spirit has sent me. You shall know. I leave Tuckhabatchee
directly, and shall go straight to Detroit. When I arrive there, I
will stamp on the ground with my foot and shake down every house
in Tuckhabatchee.” So saying, he turned and left the Big Warrior
in utter amazement at both his manner and his threat, and pursued
his journey. The Indians were struck no less with his conduct than
was the Big Warrior, and began to dread the arrival of the day
when the threatened calamity would befall them. They met often and
talked over this matter, and counted the days carefully to know the
day when Tecumthé would reach Detroit. The morning they had fixed
upon as the day of his arrival at last came. A mighty rumbling was
heard—the Indians all ran out of their houses—the earth began to
shake; when at last, sure enough, every house in Tuckhabatchee was
shaken down. The exclamation was in every mouth, “Tecumthé has got
to Detroit!” The effect was electric. The message he had delivered
to the Big Warrior was believed, and many of the Indians took their
rifles and prepared for the war. The reader will not be surprised
to learn that an earthquake had produced all this; but he will be,
doubtless, that it should happen on the very day on which Tecumthé
arrived at Detroit, and in exact fulfillment of his threat. It was
the famous earthquake of New Madrid on the Mississippi. (_McKenney
and Hall, 1._)
The fire thus kindled among the Creek by Tecumtha was fanned into a
blaze by the British and Spanish traders until the opening of the war
of 1812 gave the opportunity for the terrible outbreak known in history
as the Creek war.