March 9, 1768 – October 5, 1813. Tecumseh began life in the Shawnee village of Piqua, [Miami County] Ohio on March 9, 1768 as a great meteor flashed and burned its way across the heavens. This event accounts for his name: The Shooting Star, or Celestial Panther Lying in Wait. Tecumseh grew to be a famous warrior and dynamic orator. These skills, paired with his belief that the white man would never rest until all American Indians were dispossessed, made him a powerful and influential force. Copied from Tecumseh at the National Park Service
Tecumseh and the Shawnee prophet including sketches of George Rogers Clark, Simon Kenton, William Henry Harrison, Cornstalk, Blackhoof, Bluejacket, the Shawnee Logan, and others famous in the frontier wars of Tecumsehs time by Eggleston, Edward, 1837-1902; Seelye, Elizabeth Eggleston, 1858-, Publication date 1878, on Archive.org.
Another copy has map and paintings in cover. A quote in a meme concerning religion and violence commonly shared on social media is found on the bottom of page 185 continuining on the top of page 186.
While his brother Tecumseh was assembling the greatest Indian confederation the U.S. would ever confront, the “Prophet” launched a fateful preemptive attack in Indiana Territory. Tecumseh and The Prophet at Tippecanoe Peter Cozzens, Winter 2021 Volume 66 Issue 1 of American Heritage magazine.
According to legend, (Penick, 1981, p. 123), the Shawnee Indian chief Tecumseh traveled south in 1811 from his village of Tippecanoe on the Wabash River in an attempt to recruit supporters. At a town of Creek Indians near the site of Montgomery, Ala., Tecumseh declared that they would know he was sent by the Great Spirit because, upon leaving, he would go to Detroit, stamp his foot on the ground, and shake down all their houses. Tecumseh left. The Creeks counted the days; on the morning they had estimated for his arrival in Detroit, the earth began to shake, and houses fell down. It was the first of the New Madrid, Mo., earthquakes, which were centered about 250 mi away in the Mississippi Valley.
On August 20, 1810, Shawnee warrior Tecumseh met with Indiana Territorial Governor William Henry Harrison in Vincennes. Tecumseh spoke for a growing confederacy of American Indians. He denounced the 1809 Treaty at Fort Wayne in which the U.S. government continued their policy of taking Indian lands by treaties with village chiefs. Tecumseh told Harrison: Indian lands were common property and could not be sold without agreement of all Indian nations; the confederacy wanted to keep peace and their lands, but would defend their villages from U.S. advance.
#OTD in 1810, Shawnee military and political leader Tecumseh addressed Territorial Governor William Henry Harrison in Vincennes. Through this address, Tecumseh hoped to persuade Harrison to both relinquish American claim to land acquired in the Treaty of Fort Wayne and to dissuade him from further encroachment upon Native people’s land, saying, “If you will not give up the land and do cross the boundary of your present settlement it will be very hard and produce great troubles among us.” Tecumseh had travelled to Vincennes from Prophetstown, just north of present-day Lafayette, with an escort of seventy-five warriors. Prophetstown leaders had not been informed of the negotiations of the Treaty of Fort Wayne, signed in 1809, and the treaty increased tensions between Prophetstown and the territorial government. According to historian Adam Jortner, the August 1810 summit “did not produce any changes in relations, but it did produce some of the most eloquent explanations and defenses of the Prophetstown position on land ownership.” Learn more about the Treaty of Fort Wayne here: Journal of the proceedings: Indian treaty, Fort Wayne, September 30th, 1809 [read online at CurateND University of Notre Dame - see 1809 Treaty of Fort Wayne section on our Indians - Native American page]
The portrait of Tecumseh below was painted by Owen Staples, based on Benson Lossing's 1868 engraving.
The last time Ohio experienced a total solar eclipse was June 16, 1806. The so-called Tecumseh Eclipse played a...
The last time Ohio experienced a total solar eclipse was June 16, 1806. The so-called Tecumseh Eclipse played a significant role in the legendary Shawnee leader’s fight against western settlement of native lands. But a deeper look at the early years of Ohio history suggests the eclipse may be misnamed.
Tecumseh, “Panther Moving in the Sky,” was a Shawnee visionary who tried to form an Indian confederacy to resist the advancing American frontier. A brilliant orator and renowned warrior, he was assisted by his brother, Tenskatawa, “I am the Open Door,” who led an Indian religious reawakening. During the War of 1812, Tecumseh and his supporters gathered thousands of Indians to the British cause in the West. To assist their allies, the British agreed to supply food, clothing, and weapons, including more that 25,000 guns. This North West gun was one of those, and was made in Birmingham, England in 1812-13.
As early as 1808, Tecumseh had formed a friendship with an Ohio settler, Jonathan Walker, whose family had been Loyalists during the Revolution. Walker was sympathetic, or at least neutral, to the British crown. Tecumseh admired a fine rifle owned by Walker, and they traded guns, Tecumseh also giving some silverwork and other valuable property.
Tecumseh was killed just days later, on October 5, 1813, at the Battle of the Thames, two hundred and twelve years ago today. The Walker family kept the relics as souvenirs of one of the greatest Indian chiefs, and a martyr to his aspirations.
The Tecumseh gun was purchased from John Walker, great grandson of Jonathan Walker, in 1939 by Benton Kidwell of South Charleston, Ohio. He was familiar with the story of the Tecumseh-Walker friendship and was convinced of the gun’s authenticity. It was a prized part of his collection of early American weapons. Charles Hanson, founder of the Museum of the Fur Trade, heard of the gun’s existence and visited Mr. Kidwell several times to examine his collection and the Tecumseh gun. Failing health and financial difficulties induced Mr. Kidwell to sell the firearm to the museum in 1954.
