Tecumseh and the War of 1812

William Henry Harrison was a renowned military leader who contributed to American victory during the War of 1812 against the Indian population. His crowning achievement, which he used to sail into the world of politics later in his life (including the shortest term ever served as U.S. President – one month or so, after which he perished from pneumonia). His largest victory during the war was the battle of Tippecanoe, wherein he wiped out the city of Prophetstown while its leaders were absent, and the Battle of Thames, at which Shawnee leader Tecumseh (discussed in the next paragraph) was killed by forces that Harrison led as a general. He later became a Congressman, then the governor of the Indiana territory. Harrison’s role in provoking further conflict with native Indians was his desire for them to jettison their thousands of years of tribal ways, customs, religions, and practices and “convert” to a more overtly Americanized lifestyle. Their only alternative to adopting white ways was to displace themselves further west so that white settlers could take over their land. This is important because this policy led up to the Indian-American conflicts of the War of 1812, as well as the last and largest battles of resistance that the native peoples engaged in before being largely subdued.

Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa were two Shawnee brothers who bore messages of resistance to the white men to their native brethren. Tecumseh was long averse to treaties and acceptance of white since his refusal to 1795’s Treaty of Greenville, and his prophet brother Tenskwatawa supported the same views. Tenskwatawa preached that “white people … were the source of all evil in the world, and Indians should abandon American alcohol, clothing, food, and manufactured goods” (Liberty 303). Both endorsed no further contact and complete separation from white culture, the rebirth of Indian ways, and refusal to cooperate with government policies. Tecumseh traveled across the Mississippi Valley and entreated fellow Indian tribes to join together to rise against whites, which led to large Indian and white conflicts during the War of 1812, during which Americans fought both the British and the native Indians.

Tecumseh’s views on land ownership were those of most indigenous Indians: that the land came from the Great Spirit and as such could be claimed by no human group. This was, of course, in direct conflict with white Americans’ views, which were that land equated to financial gain, status, and freedom. “[The continent] … all belonged to red men … placed on it by the Great Spirit that made them, to keep it, to traverse it, to enjoy its productions, and to fill it with the same race … That no part,” he goes on, “has a right to sell, even to each other, much less to strangers; those who want all, and will not do with less” (Freedom 168). His argument was that treaties and agreements with whites are useless because they are never satisfied with the results and will always seek to gain more of the Indians’ territory, be it through violence, deception, or misleading “peace” offers and trades. His, and nearly all Indians’ view, is that whoever throws his blanket on the ground is the rightful occupant until he moves on, and none may displace him. Hunting and fishing areas may be shared for the mutual benefit of all tribes, but residency trumps all, which is a concept the whites would never accept.