Plea to the Chocktaws and the Chickasaws

by Tecumseh (Shawnee)

BEFORE READING

Background

The great Shawnee chief and orator Tecumseh was a defiant opponent of the U.S. government. A skillful and just warrior and a student of white man's history, Tecumseh refused to sign the white government's treaties. Because all Indians held North American lands in common, he argued, these treaties signed by separate tribes were invalid. As white settlers poured into lands east of the Mississippi, Tecumseh fought to forge an Indian Confederation, an independent political state that could deal with the U.S. government as an equal.

In this selection, Tecumseh tries to persuade the Choctaws and Chickasaws to join his alliance. These two prosperous southern tribes had fought the early Spanish explorers but later allied with the British. They refused Tecumseh's plea. About twenty years later, the white government drove them off their lands and marched them to reservations in today's Oklahoma, on the Trail of Tears.

About the Author

Tecumseh (Shawnee) (c. 1768-1813) Tecumseh was born in present-day Ohio, the son of a part-Creek-Cherokee woman and a Shawnee chief who later was killed by white settlers. As a young man, Tecumseh became known as a mighty warrior and a just man who refused to allow torture of prisoners or barbaric killing. He soon became a Shawnee leader.

In 1794, Tecumseh refused to sign the Treaty of Greenville, which awarded most of Ohio to the U.S. government. Instead, he moved with his followers to present-day Indiana. There a white woman taught him to read. After studying the white man's history and Bible, Tecumseh resolved to set up an Indian Coalition. He and his brother, a prophet who preached against accepting white ways, set up a village in Indiana and traveled through the Midwest, seeking Indian support. Tecumseh also allied himself with the British.

In 1809, Governor William Henry Harrison set out to block Tecumseh's efforts, signing a series of treaties with minor tribes that allowed the U.S. to claim millions of acres of land that Tecumseh wanted for his confederation. After meeting with a furious but strategically clever Tecumseh, Harrison called him "one of those uncommon geniuses, which spring up occasionally to produce revolutions."

In 1811, while Tecumseh was in the South, trying to win support from the Creeks, Chickasaws, and Choctaws, Harrison maneuvered Tecumseh's brother into a battle and wiped out their village. When Tecumseh returned, he moved to British Canada. He fought the U.S. government in the War of 1812 as a British brigadier general.

In 1813, in a battle in Kentucky, Tecumseh was killed. The morning of his death, he had put aside his British uniform and dressed as a Shawnee.

resolution—final decision.

audacious—bold.

insensible—unaware.

avarice—greed.

extricate—remove; escape.

Naught—nothing.

annihilation—total destruction.

blighting—killing or destroying.

delusive—false.

contentions—acts of rivalry; quarrels.

ignominy—humiliation or dishonor.

harbingers—indications of what will occur in the future.

bequeathed—given as an inheritance.

usurpation—seizure by force.

dupes—easily deceived people, used as the tool or others.

indolently—lazily.

encroach—advance against; take another's possessions or rights gradually or stealthily.

ample—great enough; fully sufficient.

dally—waste time; dawdle.

vindicate—justify; prove themselves worthy.

consanguinity—related by a common ancestor.

inveterate—long-established.

DURING READING

Use the STUDY GUIDE below as a way to work through the selection and improve your comprehension of the essay.

AFTER READING

Answer the Questions to Consider questions in the book as a way to develop your understanding of the selection.

1. Why did Tecumseh criticize the Choctaws and Chickasaws?

2. Why did Tecumseh feel that it was important for the Choctaws and Chickasaws to join forces with him?

3. How, according to Tecumseh, had life changed for the Indian people since the arrival of the whites? How would it continue to change?

Bibliography

Native American Perspectives

Paul Bailey. Wovoka: The Indian Messiah (1957). About the Paiute prophet who taught the Ghost Dance to Indians in the 1880s.

Benjamin Capps. The Great Chiefs (1975). A lavishly illustrated book that relates life stories of the great Native American chiefs of the Old West.

Gregory Dowd. A Spirited Resistance: The North American Indians’ Struggle for Unity 1745–1815 (1992). Describes Shawnee Chief Tecumseh’s efforts to build an independent Indian nation.

Grant Foreman. Indian Removal: The Emigration of the Five Civilized Tribes of Indians (1932). About the U.S. Army’s 1830s removal of five southeastern tribes from their lands.

William T. Hagan. American Indians (1979). A history of Native Americans, from early encounters with whites to the present-day.

Francis Paul Prucha, ed. Documents of United States Indian Policy (1990). A collection of U.S. government documents on Indian policy.

John Tebbel. The American Indian Wars (1960). The history of Indian wars, written by an Ojibwa journalism professor and historian.

W.C. Vanderwerth. Indian Oratory: Famous Speeches by Noted Indian Chieftains (1971). Noted speeches by the greatest leaders of the Native American tribes.