by James Laxer
For the two years prior to the outbreak of the War of 1812, Tecumseh continued to travel throughout the regions on the western rim of American settlement. He was tireless in his campaign to win native peoples over to his cause. Some of his journeys are well documented, while others are less certain, handed down to future generations in the form of oral history. That he spent time with militant Muscogees (Creeks) is well established. Much less certain is the claim that he visited Cherokee leaders in the mountainous terrain of North Carolina. We hear of him in Chickasaw territory en route to the Mississippi. Other stories tell of him among the Cherokees in Tennessee, not far from the region where he and Cheeseekau had once spent time. There is evidence that he visited the Osages west of the Mississippi, counting on their anger at the Americans to offset a dispute with the Missouri Shawnees. On the northwestern leg of his journeys, Tecumseh traversed the Illinois country and the upper Mississippi. In this vast terrain, he was courting Potawatomis, Winnebagoes, Sacs, Foxes, Dakotas, Kickapoos, Ojibwas, and Ottawas.15
During these travels, which were monitored with concern by the Americans, Tecumseh was building an informal political organization, a grouping of peoples who shared a common vision. The Shawnee chief met with both successes and failures: he won some to his banner; others chose to sit on the sidelines; still others aligned themselves with the Americans (some of the latter group had grown dependent on annuities from the U.S. government).
On September 20, 1811, Tecumseh rode into Tuckhabatchee, the capital of the Muscogee people, in present-day Alabama. Twenty warriors — members of the Shawnee, Kickapoo, and Winnebago nations — rode with him. The last months of a tense peace between the United States and the native peoples were quickly passing. And with the War Hawks stoking the fires in Washington, the U.S. and Britain were well down the path to war.
Thousands of people watched the dramatic arrival of Tecumseh and his followers. Tuckhabatchee was overflowing with visitors, in town for the meeting of the Muscogee national council. Big Warrior, Hopoithle Miko, and other important chiefs were in attendance. Longtime North Carolina politician Benjamin Hawkins, the government-appointed representative to the Muscogee nation, came to Tuckhabatchee to serve as the eyes and ears of the United States and to speak up for U.S. interests. A number of white traders were also on hand, as well as representatives from the Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Cherokee tribes, and even some from the Seminole nation in Spanish-ruled Florida.16
The Muscogee lived in settlements in the area now known as the Old Southwest (present-day Alabama and Mississippi) and western portions of Georgia, building their towns along the rivers and creeks of that lush territory, which is why settlers called them the “Creeks.” Tuckhabatchee was strategically located at the junction of the Tallapoosa and Coosa Rivers.
As was the case with the native peoples of the North, the arrival of white settlers in their territory had led to a growing crisis within Muscogee society. In the new territories, settlers could purchase land cheaply, at between $1.25 and $2.00 an acre, but many preferred simply to squat on the land in the hope that they wouldn’t be bothered by the U.S. government or by the native peoples. Outfitted with slaves — some settlers bought their own and others purchased slaves from the Spaniards farther south — they aspired to become wealthy members of the planter class. During the first decade of the nineteenth century, the slave-owning settlers introduced the cotton gin in the Mississippi Territory (present-day Alabama and Mississippi). By 1810, slaves made up almost 40 percent of the population of the settlements along the Tombigbee River, one of the two major rivers (along with the Alabama) flowing from Mississippi south through Alabama.17
Slave ownership was also widespread among the Muscogees in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. During the American Revolution, Muscogees allied to the British captured black slaves from southern whites. In the 1790s, the use of the cotton gin, which did so much to reinvigorate slavery in the South, promoted the institution of black slavery among the upper crust of Muscogee society. In some cases, Muscogee women were removed from work in the fields to be replaced by black slaves of both genders.18 The Muscogee chief Big Warrior was among those who grew wealthy and owned slaves.19
In 1805, the Muscogee ceded close to three million acres of land between the Oconee and Ocmulgee Rivers in Georgia. Within a short space of time, the settlers pushed across this area and moved into the lands west of the Ocmulgee River that remained, in theory at least, in the hands of the Muscogee. Big Warrior declared, “The Muscogee land is become very small . . . What we have left we cannot spare, and you will find that we are distressed.”20 The chief protested directly to President Thomas Jefferson that white settlers were violating the agreement and were seizing native land. In 1809, federal soldiers drove about seventeen hundred squatters off the land of the Muscogee and the territory of the Chickasaws, farther to the northwest. But such occasional attempts by Washington to stem the advance of the settlers proved utterly ineffectual. The federal government lacked both the means and the political will to stop that westward tide.
In the same years that the Muscogees endured the full brunt of the settler migration, they also were cursed with a sharp decline in the number of deer on their traditional lands. The herds had been overhunted. The Muscogees wrestled with two broad approaches. Some wanted to adapt to the ways of the white man; others passionately believed their survival as a people depended upon resisting the Americans and, if possible, driving them back, or at least holding the line against further cessions of land.
A small but powerful group of mixed-blood planters, some of them slave owners, emerged as a new upper class in the native society, rupturing the long-held communal land ownership traditions of the Muscogees. This group, whose members embraced American concepts of land tenure and the acquisition of wealth, was reinforced in 1796, when Hawkins was appointed as the federal government’s agent to the Muscogees. He was an avid advocate of winning the Muscogees over to the techniques of white agriculture. Instead of continuing as hunters, he proselytized, they should become farmers, raising livestock and growing cotton, using slave labour, and adopting the plantation system.21 At the meeting of the Muscogee National Council in 1811, Tecumseh regarded Hawkins as his foe.
Hawkins believed that by promoting class divisions among the Muscogees and encouraging intensive methods of agricultural land use, he could quickly assimilate this people and draw them into American life. But Muscogees who were strongly attached to traditional ways and who saw no economic advantage in the American approach fiercely opposed those who counselled a deal with the United States.
In 1811, the U.S. government insisted on opening a federal road through Muscogee territory, which inevitably meant more settlers. With its starting point in Augusta, Georgia, the road crossed Muscogee country all the way to Fort Stoddert, just forty-eight kilometres north of Mobile, still under Spanish rule. In the first six months of its use, thirty-seven hundred people travelled the road in search of land. In 1806, the Cherokees ceded land that opened the Tennessee River Valley, in what is now northern Alabama, to settlers from Tennessee.22 Big Warrior, while not openly backing the construction of the road, profited from the monopolies along its route, taking his share in the earnings from toll bridges, ferries, and taverns.23
When the pliant political leadership in the Muscogee National Council failed to stop the road and deal effectively with the issue of white settlement, a militant opposition formed. In growing numbers, Muscogees turned to the spiritual leadership provided at the village level by shamans, who had previously been of little consequence politically but had considerable local influence. Just as peoples in the North had been drawn to the teachings of the Prophet and Tecumseh’s native confederacy, a spiritual movement to rid the Muscogee people of the ways of the white man became a force to be reckoned with in the South.24 Hawkins found that the socio-economic program he favoured was being rejected, and along with it the viability of th
e national council.
This spiritual revolt, which took its most militant form among the Red Sticks, cut right across Muscogee society. Even some of the well-to-do with mixed-blood ancestry joined the movement. It was not a simple matter of conservative elements fighting to retain traditional ways; it was fierce resistance to assimilation. At stake was Muscogee sovereignty.
So there was great anticipation in Tuckhabatchee about what Tecumseh, the famous Shawnee chief, would say in his address. He had reason to believe that his message would be well received by many, but not all, in Tuckhabatchee. Although he came from the distant Ohio country with its markedly different terrain, Tecumseh had personal ties to the Muscogees; this visit was partly a homecoming, not just a diplomatic venture to win over peoples who were not his own.
On the day he arrived, the Shawnee chief marched with his accompanying warriors to the square. They were naked except for their breechcloths and ornaments. Their faces were painted black and their heads were decorated with eagle feathers. Suspended from their waists and arms were buffalo tails, which dragged behind them. Though some in attendance regarded their appearance as hideous, Tecumseh and his party drew the fascinated attention of all who were present.25
Tecumseh stayed at the council for a number of days but refrained from speaking as long as Hawkins remained in town. He had no intention of sharing his message to the Muscogee council with a representative of the United States government. Each day, Tecumseh remarked laconically, “The sun has gone too far today. I will make my talk tomorrow.”26 More than a week passed before Hawkins departed. That same evening, with a multitude gathered, Tecumseh entered the council house and offered a wampum bag and a peace pipe to Big Warrior. Big Warrior smoked the peace pipe before passing it to the other chiefs. Tecumseh stood before the assemblage for a few minutes, looking out at the crowd.
Accompanying Tecumseh that memorable evening, as he had throughout the long tour, was Sikaboo, his interpreter. A proficient linguist, Sikaboo spoke Muskogean, Choctaw, and English in addition to Shawnee.27 When Tecumseh spoke to a crowd or negotiated with American or British political or military leaders, he did so in Shawnee. His knowledge of English was very limited, and he rarely attempted to speak to whites in their language.28
A masterful performer who punctuated his remarks with theatrical gestures, Tecumseh used rhetoric to drive home his arguments and leave an indelible impression on his listeners. There is no record of Tecumseh’s speech in Tuckhabatchee,29 but he had been delivering essentially the same set of remarks on a number of occasions during his tour. We do have a record of his words spoken a few months later, and that gives us a good idea of what he had to say to the Muscogee national council.30
“Brothers — We all belong to the same family; we are all children of the Great Spirit; we walk in the same path; slake our thirst at the same spring; and now affairs of the greatest concern lead us to smoke the pipe around the same council fire.
“Brothers — We are friends; we must assist each other to bear our burdens. The blood of many of our fathers and brothers has run like water on the ground, to satisfy the avarice of the white men. We, ourselves, are threatened with a great evil; nothing will pacify them but the destruction of all the red men.
“Brothers — When the white men first set foot on our grounds, they were hungry; they had no place on which to spread their blankets, or to kindle their fires. They were feeble; they could do nothing for themselves. Our fathers commiserated their distress, and shared freely with them whatever the Great Spirit had given his red children. They gave them food when hungry, medicine when sick, spread skins for them to sleep on, and gave them grounds, that they might hunt and raise corn.
“Brothers — The white men are like poisonous serpents: when chilled, they are feeble and harmless; but invigorate them with warmth, and they sting their benefactors to death. The white people came to us feeble; and now we have made them strong, they wish to kill us, or drive us back, as they would wolves and panthers.
“Brothers — The white men are not friends to the Indians: at first they only asked for land sufficient for a wigwam; now, nothing will satisfy them but the whole of our hunting grounds, from the rising to the setting sun.
“Brothers — The white men want more than our hunting grounds; they wish to kill our warriors; they would even kill our old men, women, and little ones.
“Brothers — We must be united; we must smoke the same pipe; we must fight each other’s battles; and more than all, we must love the Great Spirit; he is for us; he will destroy our enemies and make his red children happy.”31
In his stirring address at Tuckhabatchee, Tecumseh drew on his close ties to the Muscogee people. “Oh, Muscogees!” he shouted. “Brethren of my mother! Brush from your eyelids the sleep of slavery, and strike for vengeance and your country!”32
The effect was overwhelming. A thousand warriors raised their tomahawks in the air. But throughout Tecumseh’s address, Big Warrior sat with a disapproving frown on his face.33 At the end of his talk, Tecumseh searched out those who had appeared unmoved during his speech, and then fixed his gaze on Big Warrior. Pointing his finger toward the Muscogee leader’s face, he told him, “Your blood is white: you have taken my talk, and the sticks and the wampum, and the hatchet, but you do not mean to fight: I know the reason: you do not believe the Great Spirit has sent me: you shall know: I leave Tuckhabatchee directly, and shall go straight to Detroit: when I arrive there, I will stamp the ground with my foot, and shake down every house in Tuckhabatchee.”34
Big Warrior’s attitude toward Tecumseh was almost certainly influenced by his personal circumstances. Along with other upper-crust Muscogees, he had grown wealthy through the use of slave labour and the cotton gin to profit from the sale of cotton, much in the manner of the southern slave owners.35
Big Warrior did not respond to Tecumseh’s accusation. Instead, the first to reply to Tecumseh following his speech was William Weatherford, a mixed-blood Muscogee also known as Lamochattee (“Red Eagle”), who would play a vital role over the next few years. He was far from convinced by what he had heard. If Tecumseh was so set on war with the whites, Weatherford demanded to know why he had not already led the northern tribes into battle against them. Tecumseh replied that all of the native peoples needed to come together in the struggle at hand. Weatherford shot back that the Shawnee chief’s suggested path would lead to war with the United States and that the native peoples could no more count on the British than on the Americans. Relying on the British for military assistance would be sheer folly.
There were others who rejected Tecumseh’s suggestion of a native alliance against the United States. During a conversation later that evening between Tecumseh and Cherokee leaders, one chief vowed to kill Tecumseh if he carried his message to Cherokee country.36
Tecumseh did win adherents to his cause, however. His words stirred many of the warriors present. The Muscogees faced their own struggle to halt the seizure of their lands by the Americans, and they would remember Tecumseh’s speech during the perilous events to come.
The Shawnee chief then departed for the North, but the prophecy he had hurled at Big Warrior was not forgotten. Some of the Muscogees counted the days, calculating how long it would take Tecumseh to reach Detroit. In the early hours of December 16, the day when the Muscogees had reckoned Tecumseh would complete his journey, the earth trembled as the first waves of a powerful series of earthquakes struck the eastern United States. Every house in Tuckhabatchee was shaken to the ground. “Tecumseh has got to Detroit!” was uttered by many Muscogees on that day.37
That the earthquake struck is an indisputable fact. And it is no less a fact that many Muscogees connected the trembling of the earth with Tecumseh’s prophecy and drew the conclusion that the Shawnee chief’s call to arms must be heeded.
By the time Tecumseh reached Detroit, the conflict between the United States and the nati
ve confederacy had already exploded in armed struggle. While the Shawnee chief was presenting his case to the Muscogees at Tuckhabatchee, William Henry Harrison was preparing a pre-emptive military strike against Tecumseh’s brother, the Prophet.
Chapter 6
The Prophet
IN THE AUTUMN OF 1811, William Henry Harrison set out to attack a town established by Tecumseh and his younger brother, Lalawethika, who had renamed himself Tenskwatawa and was known to his followers as “the Prophet.” Located next to cultivated fields by the Wabash River, Prophetstown was a thriving settlement with sixty lodges, a guesthouse, a large council house, and a medicine lodge. Two hundred bark-sided houses overlooked the river. Over the previous three years,1 a thousand warriors from a number of tribes had been attracted to the town by the teachings of its spiritual leader.
While Tecumseh became the renowned warrior and political leader around whom a native confederacy coalesced, it was his brother who fed it the spiritual and ideological sustenance that bound the movement together. Lalawethika soared in influence among the Shawnees and other tribes in the Ohio country by preaching the message that native peoples must return to their traditional ways, reject American ideas and material goods, and fight for their land.
During the winter of 1774–75, Tecumseh’s mother, Methoataaskee, had given birth to triplets, all boys. One of the triplets died at birth. The two who survived were Kumskaukau (meaning “A Cat that Flies in the Air” or “A Star that Shoots in a Straight Line over Great Waters”) and Laloeshiga (“A Panther with a Handsome Tail”). The latter grew up under the name Lalawethika (“He Makes a Loud Noise” or “The Noise Maker”), but he later took the name Tenskwatawa (“The Open Door”).2
Lalawethika’s early years were difficult and seemed to foreshadow a sad and failed life. He spent his youth aimlessly, often drunk and dissolute. An accident cost him an eye, and he used a handkerchief to cover the socket.