The celebrated Shawnee chief who sought to create a great Indian state in the Ohio Valley and the Great Lakes region by uniting the various tribes under one leader. Tecumseh is considered the most extraordinary Indian in United States history.
Tecumseh, the son of a chief, was born in 1768 near what is now Springfield, Ohio. His birthplace, a village called Piqua, later was destroyed by Kentuckians. His Indian name Tikamthi or Tecumtha indicated that he belonged to the clan of the Great Medicine Panther, or Meteor, and was interpreted "Crouching Panther," or "Sleeping Star."
This remarkable chief distinguished himself as a leader and for his humane qualities of character. His great influence with his own people is seen in the fact that he persuaded them to discontinue one of their most cherished customs - the practice of torturing prisoners.
Tecumseh opposed the advance of the white man, and denied the right of the Government to purchase land from a single tribe, claiming that the territory belonged to all tribes. To put an end to what he thought was an unjust practice, he sought to form a confederacy of all the western and southern tribes. He visited tribes from Florida to the headwaters of the Missouri River trying to bring them into his union.
But while Tecumseh was organizing the Indians, his brother, Tenskwatawa, "The Prophet," upset his plans by engaging the whites at the Battle of Tippecanoe in Indiana. The Indians were defeated.
Tecumseh then went to Canada and was there when the War of 1812 started. He was made a brigadier general in command of some 2,000 warriors of allied tribes friendly to the British. he fought in many battles, but met defeat and death at the Battle of the Thames in Canada on October 5, 1813. He is said to have foreseen his fate, and wishing to die as an Indian, had removed his general's uniform and dressed himself in buckskin for the battle. For this reason it was difficult to identify his body.
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