Tecumseh And Some Other Warriors example essay topic

Tecumseh, Shawnee war chief, was born at Old Piqua, on the Mad River in western Ohio. In 1774, his father, Puckeshinwa, was killed at the Battle of Point Pleasant, and in 1779 his mother, Methoataske, accompanied those Shawnees who migrated to Missouri, later died. Raised by an older sister, Tecumpease, Tecumseh would play war games with other fellow youths in his tribe. Tecumseh accompanied an older brother, Chiksika, on a series of raids against frontier settlements in Kentucky and Tennessee in the late 1780's. Chiksika had a vision that he would not survive the battle at Buchanan's station he went ahead as plan and attacked the stockade and was mortally wounded and was carried from the battle field and the dying warrior asked not to be buried but to be placed on a hill. Tecumseh and the other's retreated back to a Cherokee village where most went back to Ohio while Tecumseh and some other warriors stayed behind.

After that Tecumseh went on mostly hunting but occasionally attacking settler's. After that moved back towards home and come to find out that the Shawnee's had moved on to where it's much safer. The battle of Fallen Timber's broke confidence in British assistance as well as many casualties. Pissed off by the Indian defeat, he refused to sign the Treaty of Greenville (1795). In the 1800's Tecumseh began to show signs of a prominent war chief. He led a group of yong Indian warriors to a village on the White River in east-central Indiana.

There in 1805 Lalawethika experienced a series of visions that transformed him into a prominent religious leader. Taking the name Tenskwatawa, the new Shawnee Prophet began to preach a native revitalization that seemed to offer the Indians a religious deliverance from their problems. Tecumseh slowly transformed his brother's religious following into a political movement. In 1808 Tecumseh and the Prophet moved their village to the juncture of the Tippecanoe and Wabash rivers, where the new settlement, Prophetstown, continued to attract Indians. After the loss of much Indian land at the Treaty of Fort Wayne, Tecumseh gradually eclipsed his brother as the primary leader of the movement.

He traveled throughout the Midwest urging tribes to form a political confederacy to prevent any further erosion of their lands. In November 1811, while Tecumseh was in the South attempting to recruit the Creeks into his confederacy, U.S. forces marched against Prophetstown. In the subsequent Battle of the Tippecanoe they defeated the Prophet, burned the settlement, and destroyed the Indians' food supplies. After returning from the South Tecumseh tried to rebuild his shattered confederacy.

But when the War of 1812 broke out, he withdrew to Michigan where he assisted the British in the capture of Detroit and led pro-British Indians in small actions in southern Michigan and northern Ohio (Fort Meigs). When William Henry Harrison invaded Upper Canada, Tecumseh reluctantly accompanied the British retreat. He was killed by American forces at the Battle of the Thames on October 5, 1813. Although they never found the body of Tecumseh the Americans nor the british were sure of his death.

Many believed that Colonel Richard M. Johnson had shot and killed Tecumseh with his pistol. Colonel Johnson was wounded and as he lied there an Indian came charging at him and all he could do was to fire at the Indian warrior and later soldiers went back to where he was wounded and drug off the battle field and found a mutilated Indian warrior. Even though Colonel Johnson never admitted he killed Tecumseh but took on the nick name "Old Tecumseh.".