A New Hope for the Natives

About the year 1768, a Creek squaw of a Shawnee warrior gave birth to three sons near present day Springfield, Ohio.  One is rarely mentioned in history.  The second became known as simply "The Prophet."  The third named, Tecumseh, "the shooting star", was tall, handsome, daring, energetic, fluent of speech, given to deep reflection, and a hater of white men.

Tecumseh had uncommon traits in his culture.  He had perfect self-command, a keen insight into human motives and purpose,s and an exceptional capacity to organize men and plans to completion. 
He gained the respect of the whites as "the most statesman-like member of his race."

Tecumseh was merely a boy when he became aware of the continued advancement of white men on his people's hunting grounds.  He envisioned a permanent and single confederacy of all Indian tribes consisting not of chiefs, but of warriors.  It would be governed by a warrior's congress of popular rule.  Joint ownership of all Indian lands would prevent the white man from piecemeal acquisition of Indian land.  Tecumseh wanted to pick up where Pontiac left off, but with a much more powerful plan.

Even though the plan was brilliant, it was not practical.  The chiefs didn't support it, for it took away tribal independence and the chief's authority.  Tecumseh was not a chief, had no sanction of birth or title.  It's success depended on building inter-tribal unity which Indians had never known.  It certainly ran counter to the advancing white population.  Tecumseh was not deterred.  He traveled from one end of the country to the other arguing with chiefs, motivating warriors and making quite an impression on the native people.  Eventually events in the territory and beyond helped to bring tribes into the union of warriors.

In the spring of 1808, Tecumseh and his brother, The Prophet, carried their plans forward by taking up residence in central Indiana where the Tippecanoe Creek flowed into the Wabash, equal distance from Vincinnes and Fort Wayne.  From this strategic location, they could canoe to the Ohio or the Mississippi and Great Lakes.  The village soon grew to the hundreds where livestock was acquired, crops were grown, and whiskey was strictly forbidden.

Next time...Tecumseh meets Harrison
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On May 6,  1937, the German airship, the Hindenburg, the largest dirigible ever built, explodes as it arrives in Lakehurst, New Jersey.  The whole tragedy was broadcast by radio where 36 people were killed. It was more than 800 feet long, had a range of 8,000 miles, and was filled with 7 million cubic feet of hydrogen with a Mercedes-Benz engine. It could hold 97 people.

We'll Even Give You a Homestead!

Post-Civil War legislation changed Native Americans from sovereign entities to wards of the state, allowing the federal government to impose its will on all aspects of Indian life. From 1871, Indians were classified as "children" with the US as the role of stern, just parent. No longer were treaties necessary, no longer were annuities necessary in payment for land. Economic and public protest over the cost of maintaining and supporting the Indians was heard nationwide.

Reformers sincerely hoped that Indians would improve their life by farming. In 1887, the Dawes Severalty Act supporting land speculators, sod busters and cattlemen, was passed which divided reservations into individual holdings with each Indian family receiving 160 acres. All the land that was left over could be sold by the federal government, supposedly providing funds to support the Indians.

With the Dawes Act, no Indian would be granted full title to his holding until 25 years had passed. In the meantime, he could not sell without official permission. Those Indians which agreed to take up a homestead and renounce their tribal allegiance would become US citizens. Many Indian families were forced to sell their holding for pennies on their worth to white land speculators and ended up with nothing. Along with reduced land holdings came shrinking allotments of food, clothing and supplies.

After being robbed of millions of acres by Congress, Indians were now instructed to provide more of their own food, clothing and supplies in even smaller areas. In 1889-1890 drought swept the West. In the Dakota reservation starvation and disease were widespread. The time had come for the last rebellion of hope - the Ghost Dance and the last bid for freedom - Wounded Knee.

 Next time...A New Religion on the Plains

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Today in Pioneer History: "On March 8, 1893, Emmet Dalton, the only survivor of the Dalton Gang’s disastrous attempt to rob two Kansas banks, begins serving a life sentence in the Kansas State Penitentiary.

Tecumseh - Great Indian and Warrior and Statesman

Tecumseh, more than any Indian leader, saw the need to unite his people in resistance to the white man.  He became closer than any other Indian to persuading his people to abandon their own interests and traditions to achieve Indian unity. 

He was the son of a Shawnee war chief name Puckeshinwa and a woman (probably Creek) named Methoataske.  He was born near present day Dayton, Ohio.  His father was murdered when he was six years old by white men trespassing on tribal lands and that changed his life.  He detested white men deeply for as long as he lived.


Tecumseh was adopted by Shawnee Blackfish who had also adopted Daniel Boone.  Tecumseh was 15 when he took part in actual combat, but quickly gained a reputation as a skillful and fearless warrior.  He also developed an unusual humanness in dealing with white settlers.

By 20 years of age, Tecumseh lead his own band of warriors.  By 1792 he was the leader of the Shawnee along the southern border of the United States.  He fought incessantly, believing that no individuals or tribes had the right to sell any part of common heritage.  "Why don't you just sell air, or clouds, the great sea as well as the earth?"

At 30 years of age, Tecumseh fell in love with the daughter of a white settler, Rebecca Galloway.  Under her influence Tecumseh studied the Bible, Shakespeare and classical history.  He proposed marriage but she insisted he live as a white man.  Despite his rejection of white culture, he was greatly influenced by it.

Next time - Battle of Tippecanoe
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On this Day in Pioneer History:  On February 15, 1812,  Wilson Hunt and his party stumble into the fur-trading post of Astoria, Oregon, .having departed St. Louis more than two years earlier,
Wilson was later romanticized as the archetypal frontier hero in Washington Irving’s novel Astoria, which chronicled the early Far West fur trade.