Ep. 90: Tecumseh - We Shall Remain (Part 2)

Published Jan 25, 2023, 10:00 AM

This is the second episode in our Tecumseh series were we’ll look at his life from 1775 through 1812. Originally, I planned to title this one, “Uncommon Genius” which is what US President William Henry Harrison called the Shawnee. I decided, however, to use a declarative statement made by “the panther crossing the sky” himself. In response to intolerable encroachment, while many of his own tribe were leaving and heading West, Tecumseh said,  “we shall remain.” We’re going to learn the details of Tecumseh’s involvement in the War of 1812, but most interesting to me, we’ll explore the worldview differences of the Indians and Europeans and how it was destined to fail, and we’ll see that change is the only constant and predictable thing on planet earth. I wish I had good news for you, but the waters continue to be murky, but this time with blood. I really doubt you’re gunna want to miss this one…

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Yeah. It was the largest Indian alliance that the United States ever faced, the most effective, the greatest threat that the United States ever faced during the entire westward movement from the Alleghanies to the West coast. This is the second episode in our Two comes To series where we'll look at his life from seventeen seventy five through eighteen twelve. Originally, I had planned to title this one Uncommon Genius, which is what US President William Henry Harrison called the Shawnee. I decided, however, to use the declarative statement made by the panther crossing the sky himself in response to intolerable encroachment while many of his own tribe were leaving and heading west. Two comes To said, we shall remain. We're going to learn the details of Two comes Is involvement in the War of eighteen twelve, But most interesting to me will explore the worldview differences of the Indians and Europeans and how it was destined to fail. And we'll see that change is the only constant and predictable thing on planet Earth. I wish I had good news for you, but the waters continue to be murky. But this time with blood, I really doubt you're gonna want to miss this one. And suddenly, in the midst of the War of eighteen twelve, too comes. It becomes He's still an enemy, but he's an heroic enemy. He's a hero already with an American American hero. My name is Clay Nukelem and this is the Bear Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search for insight and unlikely places, and where we'll tell the story of Americans who live their lives close to the land. Presented by f HF gear, American made, purpose built hunting and fishing gear. It's designed to be as rugged as the places we explore. This is a very traumatic time for tribal people in Indiana because they see their lands just being overrun. And the Greenville Treaty, which assigned in seventeen guarantees to tribal people the northwest third of Ohio, but opens up southern Ohio, well the line doesn't hold. In other words, white settlers come in and then they just cross on their own and we call that now settler colonialism because the federal government doesn't have any authority to stop them. And here they come, and they're not supposed to be their hunting. They are hunting the game. Number of game animals declines. It's a it's a very it is a way of life that is is crumbling around them, and they're not exactly sure what to do. These lands are ours, and no one has the right to remove us, because we were the first proprietors. The Great Spirit above has appointed this place for us to light our fires, and here we shall remain as two boundaries. The Great Spirit above knows no boundary, nor will his people acknowledge any. Two Kumsa spoken to his followers in eighteen o seven. These words were his response to the settler colonialism breaking the Treaty of Greenville. They were definitive in certain words that drew a line in the black dirt of Ohio. Before this, he had been more diplomatic, more trusting of the Americans who set across the table, making treaties and drawing boundary lines. Two Cumsa was now thirty nine years old. His youthful zealousness had slowly transformed into a calloused and unbreakable certainty that would lead his followers into the most significant resistance to American expansion east of the Mississippi and ultimately lead him to his own death, which he would prophesy with his own mouth. Two cums To had told William Henry Harrison, the governor of Indiana Territory, that he and hence Otawa and their followers would abide by the treaties that have been made to date, as wrong as they were, but they would not yield another inch of land without fighting the Americans. And in eighteen o nine, Harry Uson, for his own political reasons, decided to negotiate another nefarious treaty for more land, more Indian land close to that part of Indiana where the Shawnee Brothers were then living prophets Town. And that was, you know, one treaty too many, and that drew more adherence to the two cumps and Tankat was caused Indies who otherwise we're not attracted by the religious message, but more so by the political military part of it. Oh my god, the whites are they're pushing again. They're pushing again. That was Peter Cozens, the author of the acclaimed book Two Kumsa and the Prophet. On part one of this series, we learned that two Cumsa was born in Ohio into the panther clan of the Shawnees under the tailings of a celestial sign. He lost three father figures to murder and war with the white trespassers, and his mother left him in Ohio and fled west into Missouri. His oh older brother chis Aqua, tasked to raise two comes To proclaimed that he'd rather let the fouls of the air pick his bones and be buried back at camp. Later he would also die from a white musket ball. These boys were fighters, visionaries, and loved the traditional Indian way of life. Two comes To shared and adopted father Blackfish with Daniel Boone and likely lived in the same village as him for several months when old dB was a Shawnee captive. While a teenager, Two comes To broke his leg hunting bison on horseback and walked with a notable limp his whole life. He was known as one of the greatest hunters in the Shawnee nation. In the guerrilla warfare of the late seventeen hundreds, he became known as an uncanny war leader, displaying skill, wit and bravery and nobility as he hated and disdained the torture of prisoners, which was common. Almost everyone that wrote about meeting Tacumsa spoke of his handsome appearance, magnetic drawl, and his uncanny oratory skills. Some believe evidence by the inspirational power he had over people, that he may have been the greatest orator in American history. Ten Squintawa, the younger brother of Tecumsa, had a transformative vision in eighteen o five and became the spiritual spokesman, the prophet for the most powerful Indian revival in history, persuading tribal people to return to their traditional way of life, for going alcohol and repenting of their white ways by rejecting the technology and culture of the European interlopers. It comes to join forces with his brother, for I mean a religious and political movement that united the largest inter tribal group of Indians ever assembled into a Pan Indian confederacy that stood against the young giant, the United States. This is all the stuff that we learned on episode one. General Sir Isaac Brock said this about two Cumsa in eighteen twelve, I found some extraordinary characters. He who attracted most of my attention was a Shawnee chief two Cumpsa, brother to the prophet who for the last two years has carried on contrary to our remonstrances and active warfare against the United States. A more sagacious or more galleant warrior does not, I believe exist. He was the admiration of everyone who conversed with him. Major General Brock was meeting with Twocumsa to negotiate an alliance with the British to fight against the Americans. Yep, our boy two comes A fought with the Brits against America. That's a pretty good way to get a bad name around these parts. But somehow two Cumsa emerged an American hero. I'm very interesting than that. In eighteen oh seven, though, two COMPSA it had enough and it was time to take up the hatchet. But even with that, to come say and thanks af how it knew they didn't have the strength to take on the Americans. They were not going to launch an offensive war even at this point, I mean they needed They realized they needed to help with the British in Canada, at least British arms and ammunition before they could begin to put up a credible resistance to the Americans. Fast forward a little bit more eighteen eleven, two COMPSA and William Henry Harrison had this contentious conference at the territorial capital of Vincennes. Two comes to reiterates his message that I'm trying to build a pan Ding alliance, not to launch war against the Americans, but to defend what is ours against any more encroachment byou. You're not going to break us up piecemeal like you have in the past. And oh, by the way, I'm going to head south and take my message and then of my brother to the tribe of the American South, the Chickasaw, the Cherokee, the Choctaw, and the Creeks, the great so called civilized tribes of American South, all most of whish numbered about twenty thousand people. These are strong tribes, he said, for the purpose of creating a united front. When Harrison heard that, I mean he had a real high regard for Takoms. In fact, he he wrote, was perhaps the greatest tribute ever penned by an American leader to a potential Indian foe. William Henry Harrison was the governor of the Indiana Territory and would one day become the President of the United States. On episode one. I ended with part of Harrison's famed quote about twakumsa. It's so good, We're gonna listen to it again, but this time in its entirety. I'll add that this was extracted from a private letter, so we can assume Harrison meant these words the deepest sincerity. I may make this a ringtone on my phone. Here's what William Henry Harrison said after his contentionous eighteen eleven conference with the with the Comps. The implicit obedience and respect which the followers of two comes to 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 that of Mexico or Peru. He meant the great, of course, great Indian empires. He went on to say, no difficulties deter him his activity and industry supply the want of letters. For four years he has been in constant motion. See him today on the Wabash River and in a short time you 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. The rest it comes in will be home the pioneering land us the room. Come now, who can sell the air and who can sell the sea? Who has right to sell land? It for you? And comes? Get the words of this folk song declare, two comes to get your rifle, Two comes to get your gun for on the field tomorrow you'll meet with Harrison. Now who can sell the air, and who can sell the seat? Who has the right to sell the land? Put here for you and me. This song is by the Tillers, a cool folk band out of Ohio. It's called two Comes on the back Attlefield. It's written about the famous meeting of William Henry Harrison and two Coomesa in August eighteen eleven. Harrison and two Cumpsa had a classically romantic but very real and bloody and not so romantic nineteenth century rivalry. They were arch enemies but maintain respect for each other. It was just a different time. I want to step outside of the Chronology of two comes his life for a minute and look into the Native American worldview. Having a view into this is essential and understanding the dynamics of what was actually happening when Indians and Americans met. Here is my friend, historian and Cornell University professor Robert Morgan talking about the way the Native Americans viewed warfare. The Anglo Saxons didn't see warfare as a ritualistic thing. As a spiritual thing, you fought until you won, and if you lost, you fought again. This certainly see it that way. There's a ritual and you know, after a certain time, you go away. That's what Cornstalk did at Point Pleasant. It's not at all clear that General Lewis won at Point Pleasant. It's in fact, it seems that Cornstalk and the and the Shawnees may kill more people, but they got tired of fighting. I mean, you don't just keep on forever, and and Cornstalk I thought, you know, well, I'm tired of this. I don't want to any more people kill or to kill more people. So they just conceded and signed the treaty. But it's it's not at all clear that they lost that battle. In fact, it's not entirely clear that William Henry Harrison won the battle of typical news. You could kind of argue the other way, but he might have just fought longer. Yeah, they wouldn't give up. I mean there was different ways of thinking of warfare. Wow. You know, that's what most confounds me is I try to just get a small understanding of the Native American worldview at that time versus kind of a Western worldview from the white europe Ian's. It was almost like two different types of beans from different planets were engaging with the cultures. It's very hard for them to mix because they saw themselves in the world in very different ways. The different ways these two groups understood warfare is a significant factor when the stakes are this high and immissible cultures what an interesting phrase. The word admissible means not forming a homogeneous mixture. When added together. Some of the greatest human tragedies of history could be linked back to this problem. Generally, people think that other people of the world view the world the way they do, but they typically don't. Per biological fact, all Homo sapiens share common ancestors, but the human diaspora across planet Earth created such a long period of separation geographically, it's as if it created a rift. Even as thee as the human soul, the mind, will, and emotions are known to represent what we call the soul. And I think if we mind into that statement, we find that the mind, will, and emotions of the Europeans and the Native Americans were very different. And I want to clarify that. I believe the human spirit is different from the soul. It's what connects us all and defines our humanity. Aside from the biological indicators, the spirit is our common bond. It's certainly what makes humans different than just highly evolved smart and monkeys. That modern trope is intoxicated with its own sophistication and fallacious intercourse with the data, making it unable to discern something that's undeniable and evident. Humans are different than beasts. Noticed I didn't say better by what system? Would you say one thing is better than another? Humans do live by a different set of rules than beasts. The human spirit, though, I believe, is at the core of it all. It's what connected Harrison and two KUMSA. It's wildly interesting to consider that the first Homo sapiens spread out of North Africa and the Middle East. Some headed west into Europe became the Chro Magnuts, and then the modern Europeans over EON's the pigment of their skin paled in some magic biological adaptive potion influenced by the long winters of the northern Hemisphere. Two Cumsa would later call the descendants of these people pale faces. In this diaspora, some humans went east, occupying Asia and eventually made an incomprehensible journey over the burying land bridge, and perhaps some by ocean vessel from East Asia into North America. The best guests we have is that this happened sometime in the vicinity of twenty thousand years ago, and this continent was inhabited starting in the west and moving east. Genetic evidence from archaeological sites and some modern testing on indigenous people shows links back to Asia. However, many Native American tribes have ancient stories of their arrival onto this continent coming from the south, and I don't dismiss their ancient arrival stories. Don't think for a second that we know all the answers of the ancient world. We just don't. The archaeological record in its most robust form is a dim record. I have tremendous faith in archaeology and science. I ain't no hater, flat earther or science denier. I'm just saying interpretation of the data that we have is just that, an interpretation and getting back to our human diasporas story, if you'll allow me the liberty to simplify a very complex story. A group of people split up and started on journey from the same spot North Africa the Middle East, but they headed in opposite directions on around planet. They met years later on the American frontier, with vastly different ways of interpreting the planet and what it meant to be a human. These boys surely thought that the world was flat, so they couldn't have predicted that they'd meet again. There's even Biblical reference to this problem, this idea of immissible cultures and the corresponding division that would produce difficulty in relationship. The story of the Tower of Babel tells of men beginning to work together with such effectiveness they believed they could build a tower that reached heaven. They spoke the same language and exemplified great power. Their ego swelled to destructive levels so God scrambled their language so they could no longer collaborate. The strategy used to divide people was to crash their communication. That's important on the American Frontier two. It's believed there are six thousand languages spoken today on planet Earth. The Shawnee language is one of them. You'll remember Chief Ben Barnes from the last episode. He's essentially the president of a functional and sovereign Indian nation today. I want to ask him about the Shawnee worldview, and he immediately takes it right back to language. What's the biggest difference in the Shawnee Indigenous worldview from classic Western thinker. I have thought about that question too, So I didn't start out. I had no desire to be chief at the Shawnee, which is a place that I found myself in and I thought, well, I think I have something that I can you contribute here. And I found myself in the right time when our former chief retired to step into that role. But before that, my brother and I was volunteering running the Shawnee Tribes language program. It was those years of teaching language that I started to understand how Shawnee is different and why it's different. So in English and a lot of European language, you have this subject verb relationship, that subject verb rightship is you have a subject verb object. It's always subject object, almost exclusively subject verb object here in North America and well Central America too, you know, you know, in most of the languages of this hemisphere, whereas the noun has primacy in European languages, and that the subject. You want to tell about the subject, the subject what it did, and that becomes your framework of understanding. It's always related to the subject, and then all this other stuff. In Shawnee language, the verb is the center of the universe. It's not important who did it yet. Yeah, So the way you frame your sentences, the way that you talk is centered around that verb. Can you give me? Can you give me an example? Example that I use is like, uh, if there was an older there's an older lady. She had always come to language class. She had better tendants than even INTI instructors did. Her name was Rosa May Peterson, and Rosa May. She would come to classes. And so if Rosa was to cook a traditional dish corn soup dish, and I'll speak in English for this. So if Rosa was to speak this the way I would say it, and Shawnee would be cooked corn soup? Did rosame Peterson? So I'm telling you that she cooked? And then why did she cook? Oh, corn soup? I like corn soup. Someone to put that at first, because it's important what she cooked. Then who cooked it? So what who cooked? It's no big deal. But if my daughter, if I could say my five year old daughter had cooked it, I would want to make sure that that was the most important part of the story. You know, Brianna cooked corn soup. So now I have this, She's like, can you believe that? So the way that that when I tell that to you, really she cooked that. So you understand there's a different emphasis. Now it's changing the episodes like this is exceptional because occurred before the verb. So what I just told you that was in front of that verb is the most important thing what I'm telling you. So if i'm if you're coming to me and negotiating a treaty and we're talking about what what the terms are and what's going to happen, I am looking at the verbs and you're looking for nowns. So it's in the way that the things are being said are important. The order that things are being said is what's important. So that's a different worldview. You ought to just rewiden the tape and listen to that section again. It makes my gears spend backwards to realize how complex the situation was. These people didn't understand each other. The structure of our language displays our value system. In the Shawnee world, who did something wasn't as important as what actually was done. The individual is minimized and the community is the focus. To Westerners, who did it is most important. But there's more. That's a great answer to that question. It just gives a window. And sometimes things as complex as that original question, sometimes you just get one little example and you kind to see it. But from that you can see kind of the core emphasis of the people was not so me or I or person. You just hit the actual center of the bulls on this one because it centers the community. Your community has primacy. Community has primacy working from that Shawnee language framework, right whereas in other society that's you know, now intruded on North American thought processes, it becomes more into individualistic, I think, which is really intriguing right now in the times we live in where we seems like we have lost our sense of identity in terms of like our community. Right, it's like that you've seen this weakness, of weakness of belonging to community, and I think these little devices that we all all carry that further divorced us from senses of phon he's got his phone of community. Yeah, Chief Ben Barnes is shaking his phone in his hand to make a point that our cell phones are disrupting traditional community. It's definitely an interesting idea. Here's another though very interesting component of Shawnee language and some of the indigenous languages. There was no word for animal that separated man. There were just living beings. Is that? Is that true? In the Johnny language there is terms of animasy, and in animassy there are certain things that have animacy. When you speak about them, I would speak about them as individuals, much like I would speak about you, right, speak about you. So I would refer to them as human, not not humans, but as co living beings, and so they would occupy the same space in the landscape as I do. So this idea that we have from you know, uh, those of us brought up in Judeo Christian communities about how I Adam has stewardship over animals, you know, where he has some sort of that. It already builds this framework in your mind of some sort of organizational chart with Adam at the head and all these other animals and in the less round. No, this is totally different imaginal imaginal line stretched out to infinity, and humans and ants and bees and everything else is all in the same line. So they all have that same place of animacy. They all have the same ranking under the eyes of God. That's very interesting and helps me make sense of their land ethic and how that overlapped with animals. Here's Robert Morgan with a powerful aside on a fundamental difference between European and Native American world views. But deep in in the Indian culture were things that the white people simply could not understand, and one was identity. Everybody was a human being, and they were more like in the Indian concept than they were different, so that in the same village you know of Ka Chillicotte, you could have from Mingos and some Delawares and some Cherokees, and they might even spoke different languages, but they were all together everybody, you know, the human beings and the white people could they could be, through a certain ceremony, become a Shawnee Cherokee. I mean Boone was a Shawnee. He was always a Shawnee, and when he moved to Missouri he would see his relatives. There is a very different sense of identity. When they did the cleansing of a white person to adopt him into a Native American tribe, they really believed it. I mean, it wasn't just we're just gonna do this whole thing, and this guy is gonna work for us and help us, but he's always going to be the white guy. It's convincing that they really brought them into their families and it was just like, this is one of us. The Indians saw people defined by likeness, and European people saw them defined by difference because they had that analytical scientific mind where you separate things categories. Back to Aristotle, you define things by difference. This is this and that is that. And the Indians thought metaphorically how things were like the similarities to try to divide it. So this this is a real you know, disadvantage of of Indians against these Europeans that come in there and you know, as you as you're telling me that, it's like my mind is spinning backwards, trying too clearly when you're talking about human beings. The Native American the way they viewed humans was superior way in many ways to see a person as as a human being. They weren't looking for difference and then and but then in other parts, you know, I mean, it just makes And maybe I'm saying this because I am of white European descent to categorize things and to think about things scientifically, and it's you know, that seems like just a natural way to progress inside of the world. I'm just it's it's it's almost confusing, even though it makes perfect sense, and it just it just feels like such a set up for for failure of of that society. For other people who think that civilization has been declining ever since the Stone Age, over the Indians was still in the Stone Age, and they thought of the world metaphorically that they could see person and son like they've given a name, that things were connect. So what we perceive as an increase in society and civilization, like we're sitting here now thinking we're way better off than them, But maybe we aren't quite possibly that. You know, when people started cultivating land, they began a decline. As opposed to the hunter gatherers, they didn't have hierarchies in the same way that if you have a cultivated land, you're gonna have a town. You have a town, you've got to have a temple, you gotta have a statue, and you've gotta have a hierarchy. You're gonna have somebody in charge, you have orders, and you define everything by difference. He's a he's a colonel, he's a major, he's a landowner, he's not. I'm not saying that's right, but it is a theory that, yeah, since the Stone Age and the age of hunter gatherers, there's been a decline in the moral world. Since the Stone Age, the moral gauge of the world has been declining, but it's camouflaged by the increase in technology and knowledge, falsely making us think we're actually getting better. I'm pretty sure our old boy Robert Morgan just articulated for me a core message inside of the Bear Grease ethos, and in a practical way, this helps me understand the radically different ways of thinking between these two different groups of people. We're going to get back to Chief Ben Barnes. One of his main objectives as leader of the Shawneese is to preserve their language. Today they are less than two hundred and fifty people that speak Shawnee. He told me. There are six thousand languages on the earth today, and by the year one hundred they estimate that only two hundred and fifty will remain. He said, every two weeks of language dies and mono lingual speakers have a hard time understanding why this matters. But other languages shape our ability to understand the world. There are things happening in our lives and on this planet that the English language doesn't have the words to describe or understand that other languages might. That's a really wild idea that makes me wonder what mono lingual people are missing. It's mind boggling. I really wish there was a way we could help Chief Ben Barnes and the Shawnees save their language. This language carried a man two Kumpsa that is believed to be one of the greatest orators in American history. What did those guys here that was locked inside of this Shawnee language? What mysteries lie hidden within it. Here's the question the Chief Ben Barnes about this Shawnee oratory skill, and hey, in just a minute, we're gonna get back onto Twokumps's life. The Shawnee is placed a high value on oratory skill, and that was part of what two Kumpsa was known for, remembered for. Why was that? I think that part of it is also the culture in which we come from. And it's not just unique to Shawny people. I have seen this, and I don't want to man, I feel I want to be cautious how I answer this, because I've noticed the same oratory traditions with the traditional Maori people or Hawaiian people, or folks from Hooding and a Shawny when they deliver a guad know their Thanksgiving Day address. And even when we go into ceremony and we've concluded those ceremonies, our speaker will stand up and he will give an address to all assembled, and he will thank all of creation for its existence. Can you imagine how long it takes to thank the entirety of the creation for its existence and for your forebearance for being present and having to having to hunt and take from it, so that takes a little while. So I think it's baked in in a lot of the ways that we came up. Does it Does it have to do with the kind of egalitarian structure of of the tribe and that a leader would have to be able to cast vision and inspire people. That's what guys Westerners noticed when they came over here and interacted with in the Jinas people is like man when they speak, they speak with such in such powerful speeches and whatnot. When Shawny people still occupied at that point pleasant West Virginia area, there's a Logan Seneca Cayuga. His family was butchered by a marauding Europeans colonists, and the story is terrible, probably not even probably unfit to even repeat some of what happened on your podcast. When Logan returned from his hunting and came back home and saw the murder that happened in his house and his family the way they had been butchered, he lost it, totally lost it. He was able to gather up a force to oppose what was opposed, the settling of areas that people we're not supposed to be living in, and so that started a Logan's one. He was Seneca Cayuga, but he a lot of young Shawnee people rallied to his banner because they felt, you know, they've had empathy for this, and he had a it's called Logan's lament. We used to teach it in public schools. We taught it for a century in public schools. Can you imagine trying to teach that now in in a in an era where we can't say certain words, you know, But they actually taught Logan's lament in public schools, and they would do it for oratory classes when we used to have dialectics and class when we used to you know, actually encourage kids to stand up in front of class and speak. Now we're doing TikTok's So yeah, but that's what what what is Logan's limit? What? What was that he Logan's all men, it's a it's a wonderful It is a wonderful and yet terrible and heartbreaking speech about Logan and how basically a a prayer or a plea for empathy. And it's not structured that way, but when you're when you hear what he said, you can't be left, but your soul change a little you know and understand like these are really terrible things that happened to indigenous people's. That's powerful stuff from Chief Barns. I want to now jump back into Two comes his life with Peter Cozens talking more about Oh William Henry Harrison and two Cumsa who, if you remember, had just gone south to the Southern Trips. Two comes to head to try to recruit more people into the Pan Indian Confederacy. Well, of course what was favorable to his purposes was unfavorable to those of Harrison. Yeah, this is his arch enemy, our potential Irish enemy. So two comes to go south. Harrison thinks, aha, thanks. Ottawa, who everyone knows is not a military leader, not a war leader, not even a warrior, is in Profits Town on what is still Indian land by treaty, and Harrison decide he's going to launch a premptive strike and wipe them out while to comes is elsewhere. He he attacks Profits Town the Battle of typic Canoe. As a result, the Indians tactically lose the battle and that they flee Profits Town and Harrison burns it. He returns to vincends and Trump it's this great victory and eventually runs this president on the typic Canoe and Tyler too. In fact, it was strategic defeat for Harrison because by launching this attack, he caused even more Indians from farther away to Fox to the banner of takam San tans Matawa, if they realized that we're not even safe on land that is supposedly our own, the Americans are gonna get us. So it backfired. It backfired and ignited more strength for the Pan Indian Confederacy. However, it didn't come from Tekumbsa's journey into the southern United States to the Creeks, Chickasaws, and o s Ages. Harrison attacked tin Squintawa because Tekampsa had gone on an apostolic mission. If you remember, here's Dr Dave Edmonds the University of Texas and Dallas talking about why other tribes rejected this Pan Indian Confederacy in this religious revival, you would feel like what he was promoting would be accepted by every tribe. You. I mean, if you just said, hey, we got a guy that wants you not all the tribes so that we can all keep our land in the United States, will be not be able to come any further. I mean that sounds like it's such an easy sell. But he was rejected way more than he was. Well, he was accepted in it. It was because a lot of these tribes were had their own little interest going here. Yeah they had good What what did they have coming from the government like well would lead you? Well, they had, they had some they had sometimes leaders had positions, the payments, sometimes they were being paid. Sometimes they felt that they should be the sole owners of this particular and and wouldn't have to share it with other tribes. But this is not so strange if you stop and think about it right now. It makes sense right now to say to some people, you know, we've really got to do some make some changes. Are the country is going to be in bad shape here. And but people said, oh no, man, I've got you know, I got a job doing here. I don't want you know, I don't want to lie pretty good my life is pretty good, or I don't want the coal industry to go away with the guys. Yeah right, I mean, so everybody's everybody their self interest involved in this. And one thing about all of this, as a as a historian of most of my life, history doesn't exactly repeat itself, but it comes around pretty close. It seems like the issues of human nature always come up when you put a bunch of people in the spot. Humans are always moving around and mixing around. This conflict, which has to do with land and has to do with two different cultures colliding, is really the story of planet Earth, and rarely do the did the just win there? There's it will be hard to it will be hard to say that. Look at it this way, though, I I understand what you're saying. You know you can get on most of the pleasure. I think, oh my god, that's there's no Hopefully, people of goodwill will say, all right, things are going to gets back to change. Changes are going to take place. What we want to do is to keep those changes good changes, things that will benefit people and protect individual rights, etcetera. But you've got to they're going to take place. I mean, giving an example right now, which is obvious to me. Right now, people that were on the verge of electric cars, people say, oh my god, electric cars. Nobody can't have electric cars. My gosh, what you gonna do? Plug them in? Well, in about fifty sixty years probably, that's hard to believe. But when automobiles came in, people said they'll never have those things. People will, well, what would you ever do? You'd run out of gas. There's gas stations everywhere, So I mean, that's kind of thing and it's hard to believe. But who's you know, who's really fighting it? Companies and for good reason from their perspective, because their interest their interests are there. Although there's probably enough other abuses for and that may be that may simplification, and there's it's easier to find, you know, holes in that argument. But generally speaking, you can make the same thing. The changes. The only the only constant, the only thing that you can always have or rely on is change. The only thing we can rely on is change. That brings up a question that I don't really want to ask myself for fear of the answer. How do we fight this change when it's bad for us and our people? Is it noble or wise to fight to the death for something you know is a losing battle? Really at the most fundamental level. Two come so was fighting against change, albeit erratically unjust change. Here's more from Dr Edmonds. Let me give you a side of something which which this is not the same, but it's it's caused a tremendous amount of stress. We see the same thing here. I think a lot in a lot of a lot of places in rural America. I grew up in a small farm town. The town's almost gone. Everything's gone. What if you're a coal miner, everything's gone? You see the point, it's it's a time of great trauma. You want to you want to fight for your way of life. You do and and it it Maybe it may be hard. It's very hard to do that, you know. I think sometimes this far past all of that trauma and many of us being on the side that really one in a way, it's hard to understand that. But because it just seems so so black and white, like white Europeans basically pushed out, killed the land, a new way of life emerges. In other words, they want everybody to settle down and be small farmers. Well that's not what I mean. The Shawnees farm. But women do the farming, not men. And and it's the same thing coal miners today in West Virginia and the same thing. Yeah, it's it's the cool when you say it like that, it makes you realize the real personal pain that would come as as you watched your collection, your way of life just designed down in front of you. Did the traditionalists ever win? He rarely, because the problem is what happens is by that time there have been too many there's too much of the news ways that people have gotten used to. What you could What you hope here is that you get the very best of the old tradition combined with the new ways, and you you gradually work your way forward. That's the best of all worlds. That doesn't always happen. But you're right, No, they win sometimes for a short time. But but but but they don't win in the long run. It's kind of sad, isn't that. Yes, except they've got to understand. I think that that the only constant in the world, probably the only thing. The only thing that doesn't change is change. The only thing that doesn't change is change. Godly, here's Peter Cozen's with the next step into comes his life. The Battle of Tip of Canoe was in eighteen eleven, so that's where we are. Fast forward a few months, a few more months into eighteen twelve United States, Declaire's were in Great Britain. One of the reason is given is just trumped up idea that the Indians are are launching raids on the northern frontier of the United States because they're being controlled by the British to do so, when in fact, the few raids that occurred were revenge raids as a result of Harrison's attacking profits time. So Wor twelve begins, Two comes to and his allies make common cause with the British in western Ontario. The British, who are badly outnumbered because they're busy fighting Napoleon in Europe, they're more than happy to have Indian help. More and more Indians flocked to Two Comes To and Tanks Platawa's banner. The British, in good faith promised that if they beat the Americans, which they have every prospect of doing early in the world Atian twelve, that they will grant Two comes To and Tanks Wattawa an Indian homeland which benefits both sides. For the British, it would be a buffer state between the United States that wants to conquer Canada, and of course will give the Indians are on homeland and that would be modern day Michigan, Wisconsin, and whatever part of northern Ohio and Indiana the British and Indians could conquer. The War of eighteen twelve went from eighteen twelve to eighteen fifteen and started because of British violations of US maritime rights. The US used the political excuse of the Indians who were being supplied by the British, and we're raiding US settlements. But behind this there were trade issues between British owned Canada, the US and the French, and the US just wanted Indian land. The British became allied with the Compsa and promised him an Indian nation if they won. Here's more from Peter. Two Compsa and his allies and the British defeated the American Army, the only American army of consequence in the the Midwest, when they captured Detroit, Michigan in twelve. Captured that army, drove the Americans out of mis Chigan and northernmost Ohio, put them on the defensive for several months and things were going their way. So and that that was a big deal. This two Cumpsa and what he's doing, and these the British and the Indians there for real. Yeah, the British could not have captured Detroit, which was the you know, the the American outposts in the Midwest without two cumsa preceding that in western Ontario two cumpsa, he and his Indian allies, with help of what British were there, basically, through two cumbs of tactical planning, were able to halt a tentative American invasion of Canada from Detroit. So Canada, and it's still recognizing Canada today that Canada owed its safety to twocumsa and then once the British got up to strength, they were able to capture Detroit with two cumbs as hell. Sounds to me like Canada might have a different name if it weren't. Two Comes a big if true. Big if true. Here's Peter quantifying the influence and power two comes a rallied against the United States. So here we are in the latter part of eighteen twelve, and it's clear then, and it also is true in hindsight today. Two Comes at the height of his power as an Indian military and political leader, assembled nearly six thousand warriors from tribes all across the Midwest to fight under him. And you compare that to what the Indians were able to accomplish or not accomplished in the West after the Civil War, during the Great Indian Wars, the largest alliance ever existed in the American West was that of the Lakota also known as a Sue Lakota and the Cheyenne. In eighteen seventy six, under Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, they brought together between two thousand and twenty five undred warriors to oppose American expansion, and that resulted, of course the Battle of a Little Big Horn, among other things. But that was, you know, less than forty the number of warriors that pledges their allegiance to Twokumpsa, and that was only two tribes sore able to get it together in the West to come San tanks Patawa had followers more than a dozen tribes, and it was the largest Indian alliance that the United States ever faced, the most effective, the greatest threat that the United States ever faced. During the entire westward movement from the Alleghanies to the West coast, two comes to assembled the largest Native American forces ever rallied against the United States. That is true, however, some would dispute the actual size of his force and say it wasn't that big. I guess we'll never really know. It's kind of like the question of did he actually kill forty deer in three days? We don't know, and it doesn't really matter. He was just a great hunter. Well. Tecumsa was an incredible war leader and rallied an incredible Native American force against the United States. And remember this man wasn't even the chief, he was just a dude. We all know the outcome of the War of eighteen twelve two Comes in the British would lose. Here are some interesting thoughts from Peter on what might have been. For those who read my book Two Comes in the Private, it will become evident that there are a number of instances in which the British and Tecumsa and thanks about how it could have prevailed, and if they had, it would have really changed the courts of American history. Michigan at a minimum, would have remained in Indian hands and Wisconsin in Minnesota for at least at least one or two generations, if not more. That would have slowed the west movement westward because at the time, I mean, the first westward path was the Ohio River. And uh, you know, if you didn't have the Midwest under American control, you couldn't really considered settling the West, so it would have would have retarded that. It also would have would have affected the outcome of the American Civil War potentially because though you wouldn't have had you know, Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota was const possibly in an union cause, so it could have profoundly changed the shape of American history. And that almost happened. Yeah, they were early enough in the movement of westward expansion that they absolutely could have changed the course they could have some historians, you know, and I have to confess that when I started this project, I sort of saw it as a pre ordained that to come to and his brothers were gonna lose. I kind of just figured there's no way that they could have prevailed over the Americans when they were you know, several million Americans in the United States at the time, and no more than seventy thousand Indians in the Midwest, not all of whom even supported two comes in and the profit. But the United States was so inept militarily and as of war progressed, began more and more to lose its will to fight, and once the British defeated Napoleon, they were able to send over more troops to fight in Canada. And unfortunately that happened a little too late for two Comes and Thanks Latawa to prevail. But if the British had defeated Napoleon maybe a year earlier, and if the Americans had not won this great naval battle on Lake Erie in eighteen thirteen, which severed the British supply line back into Canada and forced the British to abandon Western Ontario. You know, if the Americans had lost at Lake Erie, that would have prevented the Harrison from taking launching a counter offensive until the next year. Potentially by then there would have been more British in Canada, many more British. I could easily conceive of a of a scenario in which the Americans would have just given up the war and uh and and yielded Michigan. We kind of take it for grant it now on this side of history that America goes from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and you know just that this is America. But at the time this what we know today was in America. Yeah, I mean, we had we had a lot of the West on paper to Louisiana purchase. But that was that wouldn't be pretty irrelevant if we if we lost part of the United States East and Mississippi in the War of eighteen twelve. Playing the what might have been game can sometimes be helpful in understanding the complexity of how things came to be as they are, and how if stuff had just been a little bit different, they wouldn't be as they are. Do you remember the first question we asked on episode one? It was why is two Comes, who was an enemy of the United States considered an American hero. Here's a saddlebag full of insight from Peter Cousen's on that very thing. To meet two Comes. He really was fighting for a dying way of life, and it's it's really a pretty common in human history for people to do that. The story of humanity has been the breakdown of society's breakdown of cultures. Cultures rise up, and then cultures whatever happens that they change, and there's there's always fighters that are wanting to keep things the way they were. I couldn't have expressed it better myself. It's absolutely right. And just to add to what you what you said, would like to say, is spot on my mind. What's remarkable too about to come. So as he was fighting for that way of life. I mean, he was, like you say, fighting for a way of life. This was an existential war. I mean at one battle during the War of eighteen twelve, the Battle of Fort Meg's in Ohio, and the Indians and British wanted to take that fort because that was going to be the jumping off point for Harrison whenever he didn't launch a counter offensive. And so they besieged the fort. And during the course of the siege in May of eighteen thirteen, some nine Kentucky volunteers come up the river in flatboats to reinforce William Henry Harry and his beleaguer Garrison. So the Americans are trapped there. They're British and and two comes and his Indians have them surrounded up the river. Come these Kentucky volunteers, which is totally surprised as the British and comes up. A pitch battle is fought the Kentuckians, I mean there's they're untrained. About a little under the third of them get into the Fort Meg's. Okay, The majority, however, allured by the Indians into an ambush on the far side of the river from Fort Meg's, almost six hundred of them are captured. Now Comes was not on the spot at that moment, but he rides over just as of fighting has ended and the Kentuckians are being crowded into the ruins of this old British fort and some of the victorious Indians have begun to club Endeth shown to death, tomahawk him to death. I mean, you've got these these almost six hundred Kentuckians like piled on top of each other, being pressed against one another, and is the ruins of this fort. In one instance, a British century tries to protect them and the Indians shoot him and call me yankee, and uh, I mean all hell had broken out, and it was if someone didn't intervene, it was clear that Kentuckians are gonna be slaughtered. And literally when it comes to hears of this, he rise into this scrum and is able to separate the Indians who are tomahawking, you know, massacring the prisoners from the Kentuckians, bring order out of chaos and stop the slaughter, and the Kentuckians either recognize him as Takumsa or learn that this is Takumsa here now, and I mean they of course they owe their life to two comes and they are paroled a few months later. Take the story back to Kentucky. Tell if T comes to saving their lives and suddenly, in the midst of war of eighteen twelve, two comes to becomes. He's still an enemy, but he's an heroic enemy. He's a hero already when American hero. Because you have to remember another keep point here is that Takumsa, as a political military leader among the Indians, he had no institutional means of controlling his followers. All the influence he had was based on his personal magnetism, his his personal courage, his personal example. He had no institutional means to compel his followers to obey him. So he's riding in there on the on the basis of his charisma alone, and he's risking his life to save the lives of those who would end his way of life. I mean, if that isn't incredible, I don't know what is. It was at that battle that we did the legendary T comes to a rose in the United States. Wow, you know we're fighting someone who is not only fighting war as we would like to see war fought, respecting the lives of prisoners, but he's doing it brilliantly, and even in defeat he becomes He becomes early on an American folk hero. Even in defeat, he became an American folk Hey. Robe, So there's the answer to our first question. We began this episode with a powerful statement by two Cumpsa when he said, we shall remain. Though our story isn't finished yet, We've got one more episode. The very fact that a man into cumbs his lineage, a lineage of Shawnee leaders spoke on this series. Chief Ben Barnes shows us that two Cumpsa was right. Despite unthinkable trials to shawn Needs two Cumpsa and ten Swaddow as people are still here. They have remained. Part three in this series is going to be called two Cumpsa's Death. I really don't think you're gonna want to miss it. I can't thank you enough for listening to bear Grease. I'm moved by these stories. Consider it a privilege to be able to tell them to you through the veiled lens of my understand ending. I'm learning as I go and I hope that you are too. You can follow me on Instagram, the dad Gum, TikTok, The Book of Faces, and even at LinkedIn Clay Underscore Nukele or whatever Clay Nukele. Please leave us a review on iTunes and share our podcast with a friend. This week, I can't wait to talk this over with the folks on the Render. I hope you have a great week.

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