Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1896-06-09
DEATH OF TECUMSEH.
POINTS ON A QUESTION THAT HAS
LONG BEEN IN DISPUTE.

brated Chief-A Document Found Anon,
the Late Richard C~onner's Papers.
The following account of the deatl
OF the great Indian chieftain Tecumseb
Or Tecumthe, was found among the pa
pers of Richard J. Conner, editor of thu
Peru Sentinel, who died in this city
July 25, 1895. 1t contains information
touching tho question that has hereto.
fore been widely disputed. The death
Of Mr.. Conner prevented the fnlfllment
OF the task, says the indianapolis News
MY fathers family was captured by
the Indians about the year 1885. It may
have been earlier or a year or two later.
They were carried to Michigan, and
were afterward ransomed by some Mo-
ravians, and the family settled about
four or five miles below the present site
OF Mount Clemens, ON the Clinton river
2S miles north Of the city Of Detroit.
when captured, The family lived at
a place called Conner's Town, or Con-
ner's Station, near what is now the east
line of Coshocton county, O., adjoin-
ing Pennsylvania. The long journey
through the wilderness then covering
the distance from eastern Ohio to the
Clinton river in Michigan was most
painful and fatiguing.
my father settled on White river in
central Indiana in 1902, but he had
made q trip to the Wabash in 1900. He
remained at his trading post until the
breaking out of the war with Great
Britain in 1912, when he joined the
forces under General Harrison at Fort
Meigs, on the Maumee river, and with
his brother John acted as guide and in
terpreter for General Harrison. He was
sent by the general down the Wabash
to the Miamis, Rattawatomies and
Shawnees, to learn if possible their in
tentions and attitude in the approach
ing trouble with British forces. He
knew Tecumthe and his brother, the
Prophet, intimately. The Prophet often
befriended him, and was a trustworthy
friend. My father always spoke well of
those Indians. He had many conversa-
lions with Tecumthe in regard to the
attitude of the Indian tribes under his
direction and his reasons for his adher-
ence to the British cause, and his CO.
operation with that country in the war
that followed. Tecumthe complained
bitterly of the lack of faith on the part
of the United States in regard to per-
formance Of treaty stipulations and
contrasted it with the policy as carried
out by Great Britain in its management
of Indian affairs in Canada. He felt
that there was no security for the In
dian and clearly foresaw that the time
was not distant when the Indian would
possess little or no part Of the domain
he had inherited from his fathers.
"Tecumthe seemed to be fully aware
that step by step the tribes would be
pushed farther west or exterminated
by the bitterness and hate of the white
man. With a power warlike and ag-
gressive as Great Britain to back and
ally the Indian, he hoped to put off the
final day and possibly save a remnant
of his people.
"These, in part at least, were the
reasons that actuated him in that won
derful crusade he was making, visiting
the tribes covering the country from
the lakes to Arkansas. My father said
he had a persuasive tongue and a power
10 move his fellow savages rare indeed,
and he never failed to rally the red man
on to tho war path. His nature was not
naturally n savage one, and he often ex-
pressed adherence of unnecessary blood
HE declared that he would not toler-
ate cruelties or predatory warfare on
peaceful, noncombatant settlements OF
white people, but he felt it his duty to
rally the tribes and infame them to a
point of resistance and fair warfare
against the government of the United
States, which had for a hundred years
persistently pushed the Indians from
their homes and the places which that
government had assigned to them with
pledges that they should always
retain such as their future homes, and
that it would protect them from the
restless greed Of whitespioneers.
My father was in command of 300
friendly Indians at the battle Of the
Thames, in Canada. His command was
attached to Colonel Paul's regiment in
that battle. His Indians did some good
and contributed to the defeat OF
the British and Indians.
"After the battle, late in the after
noon. he was summoned to the headquar-
ters of Colonel R. M. Johnston, who
stated to him that it was tho rumor that
the great chief Tecumthe was among
fhe slain in battle and requested my
father TO take some Of his friendly In
dams and search the field and ascertain
Ii It were indeed true. My father i'm
1nedlare,y took with him four or five
and began the search, which
wi successful. When they found the
body, some Of the Indians were not sure
that it was that Of Tecumthe. There
was q striking resemblance between the
two brothers, Tecumthe and the Prophet,
but one of them had a spot or defect on
one of his eyes. One of the Delawares
stopped down and pushed open the eye
lid. and it was at once known that the
dead iran was indeed Tecumthe.
During he political campaign Of
1910 it was universally asserted by the
that Colonel johnson killed
Ny father often declared
that it could not be; that AN old Indian
and q camp follower Of the ex
in Canada, named Wheatley,
was probably Tecnmthe's slayer. He
was a bitter Indian hater and o crank
ON that subject. He was not enrolled as
a soldier, but went TO the battle on his
own account. He, too. was killed in the
FIGHT. Tecumthe was shot through the
braaet and the wound plainly showed