What Tecumseh Fought For-- Part 4: The Impact of the Death of Tecumseh and Aftermath

Somewhere in the smoke and fury, Tecumseh went down.  Col. Richard Mentor Johnson, severely wounded himself, recounted pulling out his pistols and shooting an Indian -- maybe Tecumseh?  In later years, Johnson built his political career on the claim that he had slain the mighty Tecumseh himself.

Tecumseh's death put in motion a series of events and consequences.    Furious about the British failure, many of Tecumseh's allies quickly signed an armistice with Harrison, who then sought  o enlist them to fight the British.

Even as many American settlers  spoke explicitly   about the "extermination" of  Indian people, their leaders  negotiated a series of treaties with confederacy tribes.  The British confirmed their faithlessness in the 1814 Treaty of Ghent, which  ended the war, but sold out their Indian allies.

Without Tecumseh, his brother, Tenskwatawa, the Prophet, floundered, and he eventually helped the Americans to persuade the Shawnees to leave their lands and relocate in Kansas.  There, in 1828, he set up a sad little Prophetstown of four remote cabins, where he faded away to a lonely death less than a decade later.

--Brock-Perry

What Tecumseh Fought For-- Part 2: An Indian Confederation

Tecumseh's 1811 diplomatic mission among the various Indian tribes rallied the Upper Creeks, but  most of the southern tribes rejected it. As a result, most of his efforts  remained centered in the Old Northwest, where he drew together the Shawnee, Delaware, Miami, Potawatomi, Wyandot, Kickapoo, Saulk, Meskwaki, Ottawa and Ojibwe.

To Tecumseh, the Americans were set on domination of the continent and the Indians were in the wat and must be removed.

William Henry Harrison's victory at the Battle of Tippecanoe might have ended the Indian conflict, but it didn't.  He was sure of it, but was very wrong about it.  Tecumseh and his brother, The Prophet, regrouped their people around a powerful ally, Britain, America's opponent in the approaching  maritime war.

Again, Tecumseh's aspirations were frustrated by circumstance.  Still hoping for an Indian confederacy, Tecumseh found his hand forced by the War of 1812.

For the next three years, the incomplete Indian alliance challenged American armies across the Native homelands.  They pummeled the Americans at the River Raisin, took Fort Dearborn (Chicago), chased settlers out of the borderlands, and orchestrated a three-pronged  offensive against the remaining American forts.

--Brock-Perry

What Tecumseh Fought For-- Part 1: The Three Wars in 1812

From the October 26, 2020, New Yorker by Philip Deloria.

This is a book review, I believe of Peter Cozzen's joint effort called "Tecumseh and the Prophet:  The Shawnee Brothers Who defied a Nation."

The article had a lot about Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet's efforts to unite a strong Indian confederacy to stem U.S. encroachment onto Indian lands and the War of 1812.  It is one of those new histories that paints only negative views of the United States.

I will just be concentrating on Tecumseh in the War of 1812.

Most histories portray the role Indians played in the War of 1812 as being incidental to their British allies, marauding along the backcountry fringes of the Atlantic  conflict.  In actuality, the United States was waging three intertwined wars at once.  The war concerned with trade restrictions and impressment of American sailors into the Royal Navy; the Creek War, which began as a Native conflict to halt settlement in the South; and Tecumseh's War, which started in 1811, but didn't conclude until 1815.

This last war was fought across Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, lower Canada, Illinois, Iowa and Missouri.  Tecumseh's War was not only a struggle for territory, but also Indian future in relation to the United States.

--Brock-Perry

Illinois' 200th!!!!!-- Part 1: The Illinois Territory During War of 1812

I'll be taking a few days' break to write about the bicentennial of Illinois becoming a state in 1818.

From Wikipedia.

During the War of 1812, the Illinois Territory was the scene of fighting between American settlers and soldiers and Indians.  At the time, the Illinois Territory consisted of modern Illinois and parts of Minnesota and Michigan.

Tensions between Americans and Indians had been increasing in the years before the war.  Present-day Peoria was the site of a major Indian concentration and the chief there was a big supporter of Shawnee Prophet Tenskwatawa and his brother Tecumseh.

There were few U.S. soldiers in the area which was the far frontier at the time.  Ninian Edwards, Illinois Territorial governor directed militia operations.

--Brock-Perry

A Frontier in Flames: War on the U.S.-Canadian Border-- Part 7: The Battle of Tippecanoe

In November 1811, William Henry Harrison led a force of about 1,000 regular troops and militia  against Prophet's Town.  Tecumseh was not there as he was in the American South trying to rally the Creek and Choctow tribes to his cause.

The Americans camped near the town on the night of November 6 when the Prophet launched a surprise attack.  There was bitter fighting, but the Americans held their ground and eventually repelled the attack.

Harrison counter-attacked the next day and  captured Prophet's Town.  Supplies of food and weapons were destroyed and the town torched.  Reports had the Americans scalping the dead warriors in revenge for the scalping of Americans the night before.

--Brock-Perry

A Frontier in Flames, Confrontation On the U.S.-Canadian Border-- Part 5: Tensions and Treaty of Fort Wayne

In 1808, Tecumseh and his brother, "The Prophet" established "Prophet's Town," a settlement at the confluence of the Wabash and Tippecanoe rivers in Indiana.  As tensions between the Indians and Americans continued to mount, they attracted a large following to their new village.

Tecumseh and his brother were preaching resistance.  At the same time, Territorial Governor William Henry Harrison was pushing for expansion just as hard.  In 1809, Harrison negotiated the Treaty of Fort Wayne where a number of tribes, including the Delaware, Shawnee, Potawatomi, Miami and Kickapoo transferred some 3 million acres of tribal land to the United States.

--Brock-Perry

A Frontier in Flames, War Along the U.S.-Canadian Border-- Part 4: Tecumseh and "The Prophet"

In 1805, Tecumseh's one-eyed brother Lalawethica, who was called the "Prophet," had a dream in which he felt called upon to preach a spiritual revival of the tribes.

He and Tecumseh traveled widely urging tribes to foresake white customs such as drinking alcohol; to resume ancient practices; and, above all else, refuse to sell land to the Americans.  Tecumseh was renowned as a charismatic, eloquent leader and diplomacy, and worked to create a new confederacy of tribes that would resist American expansion.

This set him on a direct path to confrontation with the U.S, which would stand for nothing stopping its Manifest Destiny.

--Brock-Perry

Re-Enactment at Indiana's Fort Wayne-- Part 1

From the Sept. 3, 2012, Fort Wayne (Ind) News-Sentinel "Ear of 1812's Siege of Fort Wayne comes to life in re-enactment this weekend at Old Fort" by Kevin Kilbane.

Back on Labor Day weekend, there were nearly 200 re-enactors at Old Fort at 1201 Spy Run Avenue in Fort Wayne.  (Must be an interesting story as to how that road got its name.)

Fort Wayne was named for General "Mad" Anthony Wayne and used to stand where Fire Station No. 1 is today at the intersection of Main and Lafayette streets.

It was one of a series of American frontier forts built to keep the British out of the Northwest territory, distribute treaty payments to the Indians and encourage settlement by people of European descent.


THE TREATY OF FORT WAYNE

This treaty contributed to the start of the War of 1812 as it transferred 3 million acres of Indian land in what is now Indiana and Illinois to the U.S. government.  A lot of Indians refused to go along with, especially one from the Shawnee Nation called The Prophet who said that the recent New Madrid earthquake and a comet seen in the skies were a sign for the Indians to rise up against the U.S. soldiers and settlers.

Early War.  --Brock-Perry