Tecumseh

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      Perhaps one of the natives most opposed to the settlement of the Ohio Valley was Tecumseh, a Shawnee chief.  Tecumseh was born in 1768 to a Shawnee chief, was reared by his older siblings after his father as killed in a battle with the Americans.  This contributed to his strong dislike of the Americans.  By the time he reached his early twenties, Tecumseh was a leader of the Shawnees.  He fought against the armies of Josiah Harmar and Arthur St. Clair and was present at the Battle of Fallen Timbers.

            Unlike many of the Native American chiefs, however, Tecumseh refused to sign the Treaty of Greenville.  Tecumseh felt that the land belonged to the natives and that signing a treaty with the Americans would mean giving up the native way of life.  He believed that is was the obligation of the natives to band together to fight the Americans as one united group and dreamed of a Native American nation stretching from the Appalachian Mountains to the Gulf of Mexico.

            Soon after the Greenville Treaty was signed, Tecumseh became a chief to the Shawnee.  He did not share the opinions of older chiefs who continued to move among his people to insight revenge against the whites.  In 1805 through the influence of Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet, a large number of Shawnee settled at Greenville.

            Despite the efforts of Black Hoof and other chiefs, Tecumseh gathers 700 warriors prepared for war at a secret council at the mouth of Stony Creek near present day DeGraff.  Settlers reported the activity, and Col. Ward, Col. McPherson, and Simon Kenton approached the council.  The natives were told that the whites were prepared to meet the natives.  The natives returned a peaceful answer and the threats were diffused.

            Tecumseh and his followers were removed from Greenville in the spring of 1808and relocated on the Tippecanoe.  When it became evident that Tecumseh was encouraging aggression against the whites despite efforts at compromises Gen. Harrison met and defeated the natives at Tippecanoe.

            Tecumseh supported the British during the war of 1812, but without the strong support of the Shawnee that he had in previous years.  Tecumseh was killed in battle at the Battle of the Thames, near Detroit at the age of 44.

            ~Written by Bridget Early