Tecumseh: Panther Across the Sky ~ by Ramona K. Cecil

Tecumseh

While researching my book Heart’s Heritage, one of the more interesting historical figures I encountered was the Shawnee war chief, Tecumseh. Born in 1768 near present day Chillicothe, Ohio, Tecumseh rose to fame as a prominent leader among the Native American tribes of the old Northwest Territory.

 

In the Shawnee language the name Tecumseh means either “Shooting Star,” or “Panther Across the Sky.” The second definition seems more likely as his father belonged to the Panther clan of his tribe.

 

Living up to his name, Tecumseh spent his life in a fierce campaign to repel the migration of white settlers into the western lands. When Tecumseh was still a boy, his father was killed by white frontiersmen who entered Shawnee lands in violation of a treaty. This seminal event may well have triggered Tecumseh’s determination to drive the white man back to the eastern seaboard.

 

At the age of fifteen, Tecumseh joined a group of Shawnee that regularly attacked flatboats carrying white settlers down the Ohio River from Pennsylvania.

 



Battle of Fallen Timbers

During the American Revolutionary War, the Shawnee allied with the British to fight the American settlers. At the end of the war, Tecumseh continued to battle the Americans, joining the Wabash Confederacy, a group Native American tribes of the Northwest Territories that banded together in an effort to push back the ever encroaching white settlers. Tecumseh took part in many battles including the Battle of Fallen Timbers against General “Mad” Anthony Wayne in which, Wayne prevailed.
 

 

The Prophet

Tecumseh’s younger brother, known as the Prophet, had turned from a life of alcoholism in his younger years to become a religious leader among the Shawnee, predicting destruction of the white European race. Acclaimed by both friend and foe as an inspiring orator, Tecumseh eloquently preached against appeasement of the whites. Both brothers were bitter that other Native American chiefs had signed treaties that sold large chunks of the Northwest Territory to the whites. In an 1811 speech, Tecumseh lamented; “Where today are the Pequot? Where are the Narragansett, the Mochican, the Pocanet, and other powerful tribes of our people? They have vanished before the avarice and oppression of the white man ... Sleep not longer, O Choctaws and Chickasaws ... Will not the bones of our dead be plowed up, and their graves turned into plowed fields?”  

 

But unlike Tecumseh and his brother, not all leaders of the Ohio tribes saw violence as the best way to deal with the settlers. Shawnee chief Blackhoof, worked to maintain peaceful relations with the whites. So when Tecumseh and the Prophet’s warlike rhetoric began causing tension between the Indians and the settlers, Blackhoof insisted that the brothers leave Ohio. Tecumseh and the Prophet moved west to Indiana Territory near present day Lafayette, Indiana, and established a Shawnee village they called Prophetstown, now an Indiana state park and historical site.

 

Tecumseh's meeting with Harrison

In 1810, Tecumseh had a contentious meeting with Indiana Territory governor, William Henry Harrison and demanded that Harrison rescind earlier land purchase treaties. Harrison flatly rejected Tecumseh’s demand, enraging Tecumseh. Violence between Harrison’s men and Tecumseh’s braves was narrowly averted when a chief of the Potawatomi tribe urged the warriors to leave in peace.

 

1811 Comet

The peace was short-lived as Tecumseh traveled south down the present day states of Indiana and Kentucky, recruiting Native American tribes to join him in warring with the white settlers. In 1811 two natural events occurred, helping Tecumseh in this endeavor. In March of that year, a comet streaked across the sky. Since his name meant “Shooting Star,” Tecumseh as well as Indians of various tribes took the sign to mean that the Great Spirit had indeed sent the Shawnee chief to unite the tribes against the settlers. Then in December of that same year the New Madrid earthquake shook the entire Midwest, convincing the tribes that the Great Spirit wished for them to support Tecumseh and the Prophet.


New Madrid Earthquake

 

 

While Tecumseh was down state recruiting allies, United States forces led by William Henry Harrison attacked and destroyed Prophetstown, burning it to the ground. This event came to be

Battle of Tippecanoe

known as the Battle of Tippecanoe. After that defeat, the Prophet is said to have placed a curse on Harrison who, years later, died a month after winning the 1840 election for President of the United States. For the next hundred and twenty years, every president elected in a year ending in zero died in office. This month Americans will observe the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, elected in 1960. This phenomenon, which has been called the “Zero Curse,” was finally broken when President Regan, elected in 1980, survived an assassination attempt.

 

When the War of 1812 broke out, Tecumseh again allied with the British, who paid five dollars for each white American man’s scalp and three dollars for the scalp of a woman or child. Tecumseh’s campaign became a bloody part of the larger war.

 



Battle of the Thames

Tecumseh finally met his own demise in 1813 at the Battle of the Thames, which took place between British and American forces in Upper Canada.

 

Though a fierce and arguably blood-thirsty warrior, Tecumseh’s passion to hold onto his ancestral lands and the Shawnee way of life can’t help but evoke a measure of respect. His eloquent words regarding life and death still echo a noble challenge down through the years; “When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose lives are filled with the fear of death, so that when the time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.”



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Ramona Cecil is a poet and award-winning author of historical fiction for the Christian market. A proud Hoosier, she often sets her stories is her home state of Indiana.





Check out her newest release at www.ramonakcecil.com