How Tecumseh Worked

Published Jun 14, 2010, 8:21 PM

Born in 1768, Tecumseh was a leader of the Shawnee tribe who united several Native American tribes in opposition against the expansionist U.S. forces. But who was this legendary leader? Tune in and learn more about the real Tecumseh in this podcast.

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Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how Stuff Works dot Com. Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Katie Lambert and I'm Sarah Dowdy and our subject for today is definitely on our top ten list of most requested. It's Takumsa, who was the leader of the biggest Indian resistance movement ever. He was a visionary and a hero and died fighting for the survival of his people, much like Sitting Bowl, but he almost won. And Tekomsa was born in seventeen sixty eight and what's now Ohio along the Scioto River, and he was of the Panther clan like his dad, and it was one of the divisions of the Shawnee tribe. And he may have also had a little bit of Creak and English blood in him. But his name meant shooting star or a panther crouching for his prey, which are both really awesome definitions, I think. And a little background on his background, we have to talk about the French and Indian War. When that ended in seventeen sixty three, the British had won, and they thought they had won Canada, which technically they did, but the Indians saw them as a threat and rose up. The Shawnees were a big part of this rebellion. There was a lot of killing and a lot of settlers captured. And in seventeen sixty eight, when Takamsa was born at the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy of New York, which was very powerful, sold Kentucky and part of Pennsylvania along the Ohio in the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, which completely screwed the Shawnees and they didn't even share the money with them. So that's a little background on where he's from. Yeah, and the Shawnee are scattered all over the country, and that's partly due to the Iroquois influence and then partly because of the influx of settlers and two comes of parents had settled in Ohio and joined an established community there has had a lot of the scattered Shawnee um but because of their troubles, they thought that maybe the Great Spirit was displeased with them, and if they returned to one of their homelands like Ohio, where there were lots of sacred objects and um important things to the tribe, they could maybe regain the Great spirits favor, Ohio was the center of the world for them. But talking about some of their troubles, we have the encroachment on land by settlers and speculators. The Indians were pushed farther and farther from their homelands, losing not only their homes, but also their traditions, their togetherness, and their entire way of life. Well in their game, which is a really huge part of it all. I mean, it meant starvation, and instead of trying to coexist, the settlers simply forced the Indians out, and tension between the two often erupted in violence on both sides. So if you were a small child growing up like t comes, you would witness death after violent death, and plenty of torture. And you would also be a uh, sort of the straddling of two different eras for your for your people, because a lot of the white customs were starting to infiltrate Indian culture, everything from diet to clothing and also some not so great gifts like smallpox and alcohol. So your world would be changing and it would be very different from the way your parents grew up. So the Indians are losing everything at this point, and they don't know what to do. Do you fight, do you go for a policy of appeasement, do you try to go to the king and talk to him and see what he can do. But those questions are answered for them when Lord Dunmore's comes in the seventeen seventy four Lord Dunmore's War, and his premise was basically that we needed to fight the hostile Indians, although we would like to point out that the Indians were only hostile because you were taking their land and making them starve. So the Shawnee, of course, will find and to come, says a young boy then, and he's watching the war parties leave, and here's the stories of them fighting fiercely and bravely, but they were outnumbered and eventually lost. But he gets an idea of honor, and his father sends back a message with one of his other sons to maintain the dignity and honor of their family. So the outcome of Lord Dunmore's War for the Shawnee is that their crops have been destroyed. Their ammunition has been used up, which is a big deal because they don't have ammunition to hunt game. So their face with starvation, and on a more personal level for two come to he loses his father, and his mother left shortly thereafter, maybe to go to relatives, and she didn't return. And he also lost his white foster brother, who had been captured a long time earlier by his father and had lived with him for his entire childhood. But after Lord Dunmore's wore, a lot of captives were reforced to return to their families, even though this boy did not want go back and begged to stay so for a while. He lives with a chief named Blackfish and more white foster brothers, which is an interesting point to consider with his upbringing, that he does grow up with white brothers, and uh, something to consider for the future when we're talking about two comes to fighting against white people, right, And for a little more about his adolescence, he was a very good hunter once he killed sixteen buffaloes in a row, according to legend, and he was very charismatic. Tribal people in the nineteenth century said he was a man of very strong medicine, and he was respected and loved. He was a great speaker, and it was clear to everyone that he was going to be someone special. Yeah. Well, and he's also starting to reform his ideas about the right way to fight. He'd seen family and friends killed by white men, and he's also seen the Indians fight back, and sometimes pretty cruelly, and so he's seen this ruthless violence on both sides and decides that that's not the way he wants to fight. He's in favor of violent resistance when it's necessary, but he's anti torture and anti cruelty if pro ruthlessness again when necessary. So to put us again in historical context, now it's the American Revolution. Both sides want the armed Indians, but because the American settlers have been so terrible to them so far, the Indians decide to fight with the British with the promise that they will get some of their land back for their service. But when it's all done three piece of Paris, the Brits give all the land to the Americans. They don't recognize their Indian allies in any way. They're not even mentioned. Yeah, so they're completely forgotten. And after that the fighting doesn't end either, the fight for the Northwest and two come to joins in. Finally, he's old enough to be a warrior, and he sees his brothers die. So the Brits say that if the Indians want to fight the Americans, they'll give them guns support. So it's a question, now are you going to trust the British again a second time? And you do. But at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, the Indians lost and they went to a British fort expecting help and support, and the British wouldn't even let them in. So Two Comes has learned an important lesson, as have the rest of the Indians. The Brits have betrayed them yet again, and now they have to sign the Treaty of Greenville in August, in which the Indians gave up almost all of their land in Ohio. But to Come so refused to recognize it. Yeah, he thought that you couldn't just go and talk to individual tribes about purchasing land, that all Indians own the land together. It was a communal possession and one individual or even one tribe can't go about giving it away. So he's emerging as a leader now and developing his ideology that all Indians are in danger and they have to figure out something to do. And to give you an idea of what two Comes was up against in the early eighteen hundreds, Jefferson said that for the backward Indians who wouldn't yield, we shall be obliged to drive them with the beasts of the forests into the stony mountains. And he had a plan, the factory system, to put all Native Americans in debt. Basically, you could trade for for goods with the government, but it would never be equal, and it would put you slowly deeper and deeper into debt. And once you got so deep into debt that you couldn't pay it anymore, well, the government was so kindly to take your land off of your hands. Yeah, so this is what two come so is up against, not only violence and war, but these tricky little plans that are being worked out behind the scenes. And so he formulates his own plan, and that's too unite the Indians against the whites. And the goal of unity is to put aside tribal rivalries, which is not something that UH many were inclined to do. It wasn't an entirely new idea. Indians have been trying to do so ever since it became clear that these white settlers were a threat, but it hadn't really worked so far, and the obstacles to unity described by John Sugden, and two Comes to a life where that the tribes all had different languages, they had different cultures, they were rivalries between them, tribal authority was weak, and they were politically decentralized. So they're not well positioned for the kind of confederacy that Two Comes I was hoping to build. So but what's so impressive about Two Comes as uh plan and his ambition here is that it is very broad. I mean, he visits Indian tribes from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico personally, and he envisioned this confederacy of Indians, that he would bring people together through his charisma, his fantastic speaking skills, but also the clear need that they all had to save themselves. And he had a powerful ally For a time, his brother who was known as the Prophet, and the Prophet hadn't been such a great guy to start with. He was an alcoholic, he couldn't take care of his family, and then one day he has this near death experience and he has a vision and it just turns his life around completely. He quits drinking cold turkey and um starts to preach and again it's it's clear to everyone now that the way of life is dying for the Indians. But the question for them is why and what can they do? But the prophet has their answer. He says that if they give up all of their white customs and get rid of white influence from alcohol to iron cookware, that the Great Spirit will once again be happy with them and will take the settlers away from their land. It's a return to what once was and hope for downtrodden people. A half of their men had been killed at this point, or twice as many women as men. They've lost so much. Yeah, they're looking for anything here. And so the two brothers settled at a place called Prophets Town in eighteen o eight, and their followers come, and a lot of Indians in one place really upset the white people. They got very, very nervous. And Uh two comes his winning support too, So this is extra unsettling. He gains a reputation for defying the government. And one man takes notice, William Henry Harrison, who was federal governor of the Indiana Territory, and he had of course communicated with Jefferson and understood what his mission was. He negotiated with two comes a couple of times face to face, and two comes to told him that basically there was going to be a war. Harrison kept up his dirty dealings, they would fight, and Harrison had every intention of doing so. He called him an uncommon genius. But that doesn't mean he was above bribing Indians for their land and taking what little they had left. Many of his land deals were possibly very legal. So Harrison pulls what he probably thought was a pretty smart move and challenges the profit to prove himself. And then what do you know, A solar eclipse happens and profit delivered. Not just any unlike seven Arola, It's not just any solar eclipse either. I mean it's a very very dramatic one. And uh now the prophet and his brother two come, so that really have followers. People who are sort of on the fence before, not quite knowing if they believed in it, are really gung ho now and the white people are freaked out. I mean, this is a disturbing turn. Well, up to this point, the settlers have simply been able to bulldoze the Indians, but this is different. This is a real threat, something that could grow into big opposition, and in two Comes told Harrison that he represented every Indian on the continent. According to PBS is We Shall Remain, which is part of the American Experience series, and that was a huge deal to have one man not representing just his tribe or his people, but all the Indians at once. He's embodying what he wanted in that Confederates. I mean, it's something that I'd say the Americans aren't even entirely comfortable with. Yet. In eighteen eleven, two Comes is on the road down south talking to some other tribes and urging them to come together, and he was aware that Harrison was near Prophetstown and planning to do something. So he told his brother, the Prophet, absolutely not to attack, but according to the Prophet, the Master of Life told him that he had to, and so he obeyed. He told his men that the bullets wouldn't hurt them and attacked Harrison's forces on November seventh, eighteen eleven, which became known as the Battle of Tippecanoe in today's Indiana, and the Indians lost, but the Americans did have heavy losses themselves. They then destroyed Prophets Town, and this is considered the first battle of the War of eighteen twelve. But it so terrible moral blow for the Indians too, because since the prophet had told people he was invincible through the Master of Life's grace, now people not only don't believe in the religion anymore, but they don't believe anything the two brothers have said. And supposedly Two Comes It comes back to see his brother and is so enraged that he shakes him. And it seems like their dream of a confederacy has dimmed a bit. It seems like they're not going to be able to rebound from this setback. But Two Come so won't give up, and he continues to travel all around the country speaking to his people and trying to rally them to the cause. And he wanted a permanent homeland for them. The way it's been explained in some of the sources I was reading was to picture a country within a country, a country that has its own rules and customs and borders, and that's what they could have. That was the hope. And it comes to this argument that if they don't stick together, they're gonna lose is persuasive enough to win back people who were skeptical after tip a canoe in May eighteen twelve. He's got eight hundred warriors in Prophets Town and four thousand more getting ready in the Northwest, and he knows war is coming. And to give you a little snapshot of the War of eighteen twelve, the Brits were taking American sailors by force, and no one likes impressment. They also didn't want the US to trade with the French, and they won't leave the country as they promised, So tensions between the Americans and the British are already there. And to come to as hoping to be able to take advantage of this. Yeah, so he joins the British in Canada with the idea that they'll help him get some of his lands back, some of the Indians lands in return for Indian service. And the British need the numbers, they need people to help them with this fight, and they're impressed with him when British general says of him, a more gallant or sagacious warrior does not exist, So to come so it brought his best, hoping to save his people from being extinguished, and brought all of his followers with him and was very successful. He managed to scare the Americans out of Canada. Brigadier General William Hull retreated all the way to Detroit and in August eighteen twelve, whole surrendered Detroit before they'd even attacked. They had this em ploy where they were marching, you know, Americans and Canadians outside, to make it seem like there were so many things at their numbers. Then there were, and Hull looked out and thought no, just no, and raised the white flags. So we lost to Canadians, you guys, and we didn't even fight. So that must be why the Canadians keep on suggesting this man. So TKMS has been fighting with a British officer named Isaac Brock, but unfortunately for us, Brock was killed and the new guy who takes his place is named Henry Proctor, and he's not quite the man that Brock was, and he's much more interested in just keeping Canada defended and not helping t Comesa in his cause. So two Comesa's left with this guy Proctor, who really leaves a lot to be desired to fight against William Henry Harrison, who is a tough cookie for sure. And Harrison has invaded Ontario in eighteen thirteen, and at the Battle of the Thames in October thirteen, Harrison has three thousand, five hundred men. There are eight hundred Brits, and there are five hundred Indians, and two comesas as to Proctor, you have got to make a stand against Harrison. But Proctor retreats, and I mean he actually runs away from the battle, barely even fights. And so two Comsa and his troops are left alone against this huge opposing force of Harrison's and they'll never win. They know they won't win. Everyone knows that they won't win. But to Comesa says, he simply will not retreat, and his men won't retreat. They're going to stay and fight. They asked the British for their weapons at least, and they headed to the woods, and Harrison's men went in after them. Two come So died there, and his cause died with him. But we don't exactly know where his body is. Some people say that it was buried in a secret place, safe from the Americans who may have wanted to desecrate it. But some say that his body was found and it was mutilated. The skin was cut from it to make Razor Strops according to a Smithsonian article, and everyone claimed that they were the one to kill two Comes. I mean, that would be a very impressive claim for for an American fighter, and since the war wasn't going well for the Americans, this victory was really exaggerated in the media. We've killed the great warrior two Comes. Things are going really great, guys. We remember this is before our bombardment of Baltimore exactly got some propaganda going. And William Henry Harrison went on to become president with the popular slogan behind him tipp a Canoe and Tyler too. But that's not his best reputation, is it, because he is the shortest lived president. Not if you've ever heard of two Comes his curse. So people thought that the Indians and two Comes to put a curse on Harrison for all of his tricky illegal land deals, and that was why he died so soon and in office. And that's also why presidents elected in a year ending with a zero died in office as well. But Ronald Reagan broke the curse, although Reagan was shot, so maybe it was just the power of the curse was diminishing over time. You never know. So two Comes. This legacy has certainly endured though even though he lost, he's become somewhat of a hero for Americans and for Canadians and a couple of Americans who were big fans of Two Come. So where William to comes? To Sherman's parents. But I can't say anything nice about him because I'm in atlantn So we'll end there and go to listener mail. Speaking of rising from the fire like a Phoenix, we got a lovely postcard dire actually a homemade card from Laura in Phoenix, Arizona, and um, she wisely learned that we're more likely to read things that we get mailed, and her husband even suggested that if she made something handmade, it would double her chance. A glitter on it as glitter and it says I'm a fan and it has a real picture of a fan on it. Sarah's been talking about this all day, so this is a big hit with us. But she mentioned that as a former art historian, I love the podcast about the Isabella Stuart Gardener Museum, and I'm hoping for more art history topics and she listed off of you. So let us know what you guys think. If you're interested in hearing more about art history. Speaking of art, we get a lovely postcard from Anna Marie that's a panel from a Russian exposition in the Louver and she said, I'm in fashion design school in Paris and listening to episodes of Stuffy mist in History helps him get through long hours of sewing. And then she did a request for some old Russia topics, So if you have any, please feel free to email us at History Podcast at how stuff works dot com. We also take suggestions through our Twitter at misst in History and our Facebook fan page. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com and be sure to check out the stuff you missed in History Glass blog on the how stuff works dot com home page

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