Tecumseh and the Quest for Indian Leadership

Chapter 2 begins with an introduction of Tecumseh and his family. The fifth of nine children, Tecumseh was born in 1768. His father, Puckeshinwa, was a Shawnee warrior. His mother, Methoataske, was a Creek woman. In 1774, Puckeshinwa dies at the Battle of Point Pleasant. This leaves Tecumseh’s older brother, Chiksika, as the patriarch of the family.

The lives of the Shawnee are upended in 1776 with the outbreak of the American Revolution. Cornstalk, an advocate of neutrality in the conflict, is killed by Americans at Point Pleasant as revenge for the death of a settler. This sparks a period of conflict between the Shawnee and the Americans, which the British encourage. In 1779, Methoataske joins a contingent of Shawnee who move from Ohio to Missouri to escape the violence. Chiksika remains in Ohio with a young Tecumseh.

Hostilities between the Shawnee and the Americans continue through the Treaty of Paris in 1783, which formally ends the American Revolution. This period marks Tecumseh’s first participation in battle against the Americans. Edmunds claims that “the young Tecumseh was profoundly influenced by his experiences in these years” (24). Drawn into further conflicts as a result of settler expansion into Indigenous territory in the Northwest Territory, the Shawnee continue to fight the Americans even after the defeat of the British, who support the tribe against the United States. In 1788, Chiksika dies in a raid on Buchanan’s Station in Tennessee. Although most of the Shawnee retreat to Ohio, Tecumseh spends the next two years roaming the countryside in search of vengeance.

Meanwhile, various Indigenous peoples struggle to reach a consensus about how to deal with the United States government. Along with the Miamis, the Shawnee reject any compromise with the Americans. The Shawnee and their allies successfully repel two American invasions that occur in 1790 (against General Josiah Harmar) and in 1791 (against Arthur St. Clair, governor of the Northwest Territory). Tecumseh returns to Ohio in time to participate in the second invasion, though only as a scout. These victories and continued support from the British dissuade the Shawnee from making peace with the United States.

In 1792, the Americans begin massing a new military force led by Major General Anthony Wayne. This better-trained and better-commanded force is more successful against the Shawnee. Its success culminates in the Battle of Fallen Timbers in August 1794, in which Tecumseh’s older brother Sauwauseeksu is killed. Abandoned by the British, the Indigenous tribes are finally defeated, which leads to the 1795 Treaty of Greenville. As a result, the Shawnee are forced to give up much of their territory in Ohio. Tecumseh, now 27 years old, refuses to take part in negotiations with the Americans. According to Edmunds, he spurns peace with the United States in favor of “the warrior’s path, a traditional Shawnee fighting man tied to traditional Shawnee ways” (43).

In Chapter 3, Edmunds pauses the historical narrative begun in Chapters 1 and 2 to provide more background information about the Shawnee people. The bulk of the chapter is a survey of standard anthropological topics concerning the Shawnee. Edmunds discusses the division of the Shawnee into five major groups, or divisions, with different social and political functions, kinship ties, marriage and gender relations, customs, homes, and religions.

According to Edmunds, prolonged interaction with European settlers had thoroughly and irreversibly changed the Shawnee’s unique culture by 1800. Though they still followed “a lifestyle based on hunting and gathering and horticulture,” the Shawnee were “much more dependent than before upon the outside world” (61). For example, the Shawnee started to rely on European firearms to hunt and European textiles for clothing. This technological and economic dependence upon European colonists lead to a loss of political independence. More illegal American settlements, more hunting on Indigenous lands, economic instability in the fur trade, violence, and alcoholism further add to the ills of the Shawnee.

In the face of such challenges, the older guard of Shawnee leaders, like Black Hoof, attempt to work with the settlers, integrating European agricultural techniques and religious practices into Shawnee life. These attempts are met with limited success. Like Tecumseh, other Shawnee dream of retribution against the Americans. This sentiment was actively encouraged by British agents such as Matthew Elliott, which helped set the stage for yet another confrontation between the Shawnee and the United States.