Biography of
Shawnee Chief Tecumseh
by Ralph Naveaux

Tecumseh was born among the Shawnees in Ohio around the year 1768.  He and his brother, Tenskwatawa (also called the Prophet) rose to prominence for their efforts to promote Native American culture and their resistance to the encroachment of American settlers onto native lands.

As a young man, Tecumseh participated in the defeat of St. Clair's army in 1791 and the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794.  The brothers' influence spread rapidly after 1805, when the Prophet began a religious revival, and Tecumseh turned to organizing a coalition of Indian nations with British support.

Tensions grew until they reached the boiling point in 1811.  On November 7, William Henry Harrison defeated the Indians and destroyed Prophet's Town on the Tippecanoe River in Indiana.  Tecumseh, who was absent on a recruiting mission in the South, returned to rebuild his confederacy.  By the time the United States declared war against Great Britain in 1812, Tecumseh's forces had already joined the British at Fort Malden in Amherstburg.

 As allies of the British, Tecumseh's warriors performed valuable services in the Detroit campaign, the Battles of Brownstown, Monguagon, and the River Raisin, and the Sieges of Fort Meigs and Fort Stephenson.  They made the northwest frontier insecure for American troops and settlers. 

Unfortunately, their activities also invited American retaliation against native villages.  Many villages were burned or forced to relocate deeper into British or American controlled territory where they could find protection and food or maintain some sort of neutrality. Those opposed to Tecumseh, including some members of his own tribe, even provided scouts and warriors to fight for the Americans.

Personally, Tecumseh was greatly respected by both his friends and his enemies.  He prevented the killing of prisoners after Dudley's defeat during the Siege of Fort Meigs, and he probably would have done the same had he been present at the River Raisin. 

After Commodore Perry's capture of the British fleet on Lake Erie in September of 1813, the British under Colonel Procter abandoned Amherstburg and Detroit, retreating into the interior of Upper Canada.  Rather than abandon his homeland, Tecumseh urged Procter to stay and fight.  At the Battle of the Thames in October, the British and Indians were defeated, and Tecumseh killed.  His brother Tenskwatawa survived the war and died in Kansas in 1836.

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