Tecumseh: Tribal Leader Who Fought American Expansion

01Tecumseh was a leader of the Shawnee tribe in the early 1800s.

02He led the Shawnee and other tribes in fighting American expansion into what is now the northwestern United States.

03In the end, however, their efforts failed.

04Tecumseh was born in western Ohio around 1768.

05He grew up during a period of endless warfare as non-native settlers moved inland from the Atlantic coast.

06The Shawnee had once lived in woodlands east of the Mississippi River.

07But by the late 1700s, they had been forced to move to what are today the states of Ohio and Indiana.

08The Eastern Shawnee tribe's website notes that Tecumseh's father died in a battle with a Virginia militia in 1774.

09The boy was left to be raised by his older brother, who trained him as a warrior.

10Tecumseh fought his first battle at the age of 14.

11The Shawnee say he became frightened and ran from the battlefield.

12He was so embarrassed that he made up his mind to never be afraid of battle again.

13In 1790, his forces attacked a group of American soldiers in western Ohio.

14More than 600 soldiers died and hundreds more were wounded in the attack.

15It was the biggest defeat of the U.S.

16Army ever.

17Around 1805, Tecumseh's younger brother is said to have had a series of visions.

18That experience led him to take the name Tenskawatoa, which means prophet in English.

19Tecumseh worked to support Tenskawatoa's visions, which promised protection against American soldiers and predicted the return of the traditional Shawnee way of life.

20The two brothers established the village of Tippecanoe in what is now Indiana.

21It was meant to serve as the headquarters of a new native alliance against the U.S.

22government.

23Tecumseh then began to travel, as far north as Canada and as far south as the Gulf of Mexico.

24He wanted to spread his brother's message in an effort to seek out tribal allies.

25By the spring of 1810, non-native settlers had grown increasingly nervous.

26They worried that the tribal alliance was planning to attack and kill them.

27In 1811, while Tecumseh was away on a trip along the Gulf Coast, the U.S.

28Army prepared to attack Prophetstown.

29A group of Shawnee warriors went out to meet them, and the two sides fought a two-hour battle.

30Neither side won.

31The Shawnee withdrew from the area.

32The next day, the U.S.

33Army burned Tippecanoe to the ground.

34In 1812, the U.S.

35Congress declared war on Great Britain.

36Tecumseh and his allies joined the side of the British.

37They believed that a British victory would stop the progress of the Americans.

38Tecumseh is said to have demonstrated himself to be a clever planner who helped the British to victory in Detroit.

39But in 1813, he was wounded by American forces during the Battle of the Thames in Ontario, Canada.

40He died a short time later.

41His death is seen as having opened the way for American expansion into the continental northwest.

42In the following years, the U.S.

43government forced tribes west of the Mississippi River to accept more than 200 treaties.

44The government also set up nearly 100 areas for Native American tribes.

45They are called reservations.

46The Shawnee were once spread across parts of the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

47Today, the U.S.

48government recognizes the Shawnee in three branches.

49The Shawnee tribe, the absentee Shawnee tribe, and the eastern Shawnee tribe.

50Each one lives in Oklahoma and all remember Tecumseh as a hero.

51William Henry Harrison would become the ninth U.S.

52president.

53He described Tecumseh as one of those uncommon geniuses which spring up occasionally to produce revolutions and overturn the established order of things.

54I'm Jonathan Evans.