Following America’s successful war for independence, land hungry white settlers streamed across the Appalachian Mountains into the region known today as the Old Northwest, the present states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. The Shawnee people of Ohio and their neighboring tribes across the region viewed this influx with alarm. Hills and forests that had comprised their hunting and farming territory from time immemorial were rapidly becoming cluttered with the white man’s cabins, crops and towns.

In 1786, after 800 Kentucky militiamen burned numerous Indian villages along the Miami River in Ohio Territory, the Indians concluded that meaningful negotiations with the white man were impossible. Led by such able tacticians as Blue Jacket of the Shawnee and Little Turtle of the Miami, the Indians responded in the manner of anyone seeing their homeland invaded…they fought back.

By 1789, years of warfare on the frontier induced President George Washington to seek a peaceful settlement. Washington instructed General Arthur St. Clair to negotiate, but the Indians would accept nothing less than complete removal of all white settlements from Indian lands. The U.S. government then decided that military action was warranted. In the fall of 1790, an army led by General Josiah Harmar was routed in two separate engagements near Fort Wayne, Indiana. One year later, at present day Fort Recovery, Ohio, another army led by St. Clair himself suffered one of the worst debacles in the history of the U.S. military, losing over 918 men, while the Indians counted only 61 casualties.

Not until August 20, 1794, after congress appropriated more than one million dollars to create a new, better-equipped force, did the U.S. military prevail. General "Mad" Anthony Wayne finally defeated the Indians at Fallen Timbers, a wooded location near present-day Maumee, Ohio where the trees had been blown down by a tornado. The Battle of Fallen Timbers was a disaster for the Indians, and in 1795 Wayne dictated a peace treaty forcing them to cede two-thirds of Ohio to white settlers.

Following their defeat at Fallen Timbers and the humiliating terms of the Greenville treaty, many Indians became dispirited and spurned their traditional ways, imitating the white man and turning to alcohol. At the same time, the white man’s diseases were decimating Indian populations. Indian people and their culture were in danger of extinction. The times called for a new leader - a man of intelligence, charisma and courage.

Tecumseh began life in the Shawnee village of Piqua, Ohio on March 9, 1768 as a great meteor flashed and burned its way across the heavens. This event accounts for his name, The Shooting Star or, to be more precise, Celestial Panther Lying in Wait. Growing to manhood immersed in the Shawnee hunting culture, Tecumseh became famous as a warrior. He was also a dynamic orator, one who could motivate and inspire his audiences. Early on, Tecumseh understood that the white man would never rest until all Native Americans were dispossessed, either driven into exile or eradicated entirely.

To counter this threat, Tecumseh conceived of an alliance of all remaining Indian people, from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, from the prairies of the Midwest to the swamplands of Florida. All Indian people would set aside their ancestral rivalries and unite into a single movement to defend their culture, their homelands, and their very lives.

Providing spiritual impetus for Tecumseh’s movement was the teaching of his younger brother, Lalawethica. Lalawethica had been a weak, ineffective young man, given to excessive drinking, until one evening in 1805 he drank himself into such a stupor that his family gave him up for dead. He later claimed, however, that he had journeyed to the dwelling-place of the Creator Spirit where he was told to mend his ways and then go forth and preach to his people. From that time forward, Lalawethica was known as Tenskwatawa, The Open Door or The Prophet. He insisted that Indians must give up all the white man’s ways, especially alcohol, and return to the customs of their ancestors. Tenskwatawa’s teaching brought new pride and dignity to the Indians, and a mood of restlessness and resistance began to sweep the frontier.

Keeping close watch on Tenskwatawa’s activities was William Henry Harrison, Governor of Indiana Territory. Harrison distrusted all Indians and he attempted to undermine Tenskwatawa. He challenged Tenskwatawa to prove that he was a prophet by causing the sun to stand still and the moon to alter its course. Tenskwatawa rose to the occasion, predicting that, on a given day, he would make the sun disappear and then bring it back again. On that day a solar eclipse occurred, causing Tenskwatawa’s prestige to soar.

In 1808, the Shawnee brothers established a new capital on the banks of the Wabash and Tippecanoe rivers. Prophetstown was a village where Indians from all nations were welcome. There they could hear the words of The Prophet and make preparations to defend their lands. Tecumseh, meanwhile, traveled extensively in an effort to build his alliance. He preached along the Great Lakes, up and down the Mississippi Valley and as far south as Alabama, spreading his message:

As the years passed, tensions in the Old Northwest continued to rise. In 1809, Harrison extracted a "whiskey treaty" from a group of intoxicated chiefs. Three million acres that the chiefs did not own were ceded to the U.S. Tecumseh journeyed to the territorial capital at Vincennes, denouncing Harrison and the treaty in public, but to no avail.

In the summer of 1811 Tecumseh traveled south to meet with the Creek, Chickasaw, and Choctaw people. The Shawnee leader had promised a sign of his power, and as he arrived in Alabama a huge comet appeared, brightening the skies and fading after his departure. Then, shortly after he left for Prophetstown, a series of violent earthquakes arched out of their epicenter in southeastern Missouri to destroy lives and property throughout the midwest and south. In the minds of the Creek and many others, Tecumseh had made good on his promises.

Back in Indiana Territory, Governor Harrison sensed an opportunity when he discovered that Tecumseh was in Alabama. Raising an army of 900 men, the governor marched against Prophetstown, a move that goaded Tenskwatawa into attacking Harrison’s force on November 7, 1811. The Battle of Tippecanoe proved a disaster for The Prophet, who had promised the Indians that their faith would ward off the white man’s bullets. When Tecumseh returned two months later, he found Prophetstown burned to the ground, the food supplies destroyed. The dispirited people had scattered, having lost faith in The Prophet. Tenskwatawa’s actions had also seriously eroded Tecumseh’s influence among the northern tribes.

Meanwhile, growing tensions between the U.S. and Great Britain exploded into war on June 18, 1812. After the destruction of Prophetstown, Tecumseh saw the War of 1812 as his final opportunity to construct an independent Indian nation. He journeyed to Canada in July of 1812 and forged an alliance with the British. General Isaac Brock placed Tecumseh in command of all Native American forces with the understanding that, should the British and Indians be victorious, the Old Northwest would comprise an independent Indian nation under British protection.

Tecumseh’s forces, along with their British allies, soon thwarted the efforts of an entire U.S. army and secured the surrender of Fort Detroit. A string of victories followed, with the Indians and British prevailing at Fort Michilimackinac, Fort Dearborn, and Frenchtown. Not until their failure to overwhelm Fort Meigs in May of 1813 did the Indians meet with their first serious setback, and even then U.S. forces suffered the greatest rate of casualties. It was at Fort Meigs that Tecumseh personally intervened to stop the massacre of U.S. soldiers captured by the British.

On September 9, 1813, Tecumseh’s Indian army watched as Commodore Robert Heriot Barclay’s squadron of six ships set sail from the Amherstburg Navy Yard on the Detroit River for what would be the decisive battle in the Old Northwest. On the following day a bloody three and a half-hour battle raged in the waters near the Bass Islands, while Tecumseh and his British allies waited for news. It slowly became evident after Barclay’s failure to return that the Royal Navy had suffered a disastrous defeat at the hands of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry’s flotilla.

The U.S. now controlled Lake Erie, thereby preventing food and supplies from reaching the British installations at Fort Malden and the Amherstburg Navy Yard. With a U.S. invasion imminent, British General Henry Procter faced no choice but to retreat north to Sandwich and then east toward the Niagara region. By September 27, a 5,000-man U.S. army under the command of General William Henry Harrison occupied the former British and Indian strongholds along the Detroit River .

After burning Fort Malden and the Amherstburg Navy Yard, Proctor’s disheartened forces trudged eastward in confusion. Harrison’s army followed on their heels, overwhelming what light opposition the British could mount. Procter had assured the Indians that he would stand and fight, but day after day the British continued their withdrawal. Disillusioned by Procter’s military failures and broken promises, many of Tecumseh’s allies simply wandered off. Fearing that Proctor would refuse to fight, Tecumseh charged:

Tecumseh finally convinced Procter to turn and fight. On October 5, 1813, the British selected a defensive position on the north bank of the Thames River near the mission village of Moraviantown. Tecumseh, warned in a vision the night before that he would die on the day of battle, made preparations to meet his fate.

At the Battle of the Thames River, Harrison outnumbered his opposition three to one. The Indians and British were short of ammunition, weakened by lack of food, and exhausted by the long retreat. Standing out in their bright red uniforms, the British regulars were scattered about in open order, protected by no fortifications. Early in the battle a battalion of mounted Kentuckians charged and broke through Procter’s thin ranks.

Most of the British regulars broke and ran, outpaced only by Procter himself, who was later court marshaled for his conduct. With Tecumseh died the dream of a Native American homeland, a place where all Indian peoples could come together in peace. Within 35 years of Tecumseh’s death at Moraviantown, nearly all of the Native American peoples east of the Mississippi were forcibly relocated to the region now known as Oklahoma. The drums are silent now, replaced by the rumble of 18-wheelers and the whine of jet aircraft. The Shawnee, Ottawa, Wyandot, Potawatomi, and their brothers are mostly gone from their homelands, their hunting grounds occupied by super highways and shopping malls. Today the great Shawnee warrior Tecumseh is revered for his intelligence, leadership, and military skills, and he is honored throughout North America as a great man and a hero.