The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-10-23
Chief TECUMSEH
Controversy Over Indians
Death Recalls Oklahoma Visit
Town in Shawnee County
Named After Great Chief.

| Oklahoma City, Oct 23.-The renew
al of the controversy as to who killed
! Tecumseh, the famous Indian war
chief. recalls the fact that Tecumseh
visited Oklahoma when he was trying
to organize his vast confederation, en-
bracing all of the Indian tribes of the
Great Lakes, Mississippi Valley and
Gulf Coast regions, with which he was
endeavoring to check the onward
march of the whites and to prevent
the establishment of any further white
settlements in the middle west.
1t was in the spring of 1871 that Ie-
cumseh came to the village of the
Osa ece chief Clermont near the histor-
| ic Claremore mound in Rogers county
Oklahoma. He was accompanied ny
his brother, the Prophet" The latter
is described as having been a man OF
commanding presence and an e!oquehI
orator, vet so profound was the i'm
preston made upon the Osages by the
words of Tecumseh that they scarcely
noticed his brother, the Prophet, at
all.
Tecumseh was an imprisoned ora
tor and it was reported at the time
that the natural sympathies of the
Osa ges went out to him. However, all
of their dealings had been with the
French traders from ST. Louis, By
whom they had always been kindly
trea ted. Those traders were all loyal
Americans at that time, so that the
weight of their influence was against
Tecumseh and his ambitious designs.
The Osages therefore declined to join
Tecumseh.
Tecumseh was probably the most re-
markable Indian of whom history
takes account. His twin brother, the
Prophet" whose name was Tensqua-
tawa, claimed to have been inspired
by a message from the Master of Life,
in which all of the Indians were di-
rected to band themselves together to
resist the further advance of whitc
settlements. Tecumseh not only be-
lieved and adopted his brothers teach
ings, but his own magnetic and per-
suasive eloquence gave to them an
added force and influence.
Tecumseh always disputed the va
lidity of the treaties by which the gov {
eminent had purchased the land OF
Ohio and Indiana from the Indians. !
He claimed that they were not bind
ing upon the Indians for the reason
that only the chiefs had entered into
such agreements, the warriors not be- I
ing consulted at all, having thus ad |
vocated the doctrine of practical ,
referendum long before the white men
of America ever dreamed of such a
system.
The battle of Tippecanoe. which oc-
sehs visit to the Osages, really spoiled
all of his plans for a confederation of
the Indian tribes. He continued to Ia
Dor for that end until the outbreak of
the war of 1872, when he espoused the
cause of the British and was COM
missioned a brigadier general in the
army of King George. His career ended
with his death at the battle of the
Thames, when he was still in the prime
of life, being then about 40 years old.
Dispute Distinction of killing Him.
Col. r. NJ. Johnson of Louisville, KY,
has always been given the credit for /
killing Tecumseh, and was elected vice
president of the United States in 1886
largely on the strength of that record,
but the claim is now disputed by DR..
r. I. Spur of Lexington, Ky, who says
that according to the story told by his
uncle, Richard Spur, a survivor of the
famous battle, it was Col. William
Whitley and not Colonel Johnson who
killed Tecumseh. The elder Spur and
party of volunteers detailed to start
the Indians out of the woods. in a
hand-to-hand combat Whitley killed
two Indians, being killed by the sec
ond one, who shot just as he did. Spur
later recovered Whitley's body and
also took in the bodies of the two In
iians he killed. The second one. he
said, was identified by General Harri-
son, who knew him well, as being that
Of Tecumseh.
Tecumseh's name is preserved in Ok
ahoma in the name of the county seat
IF Pottawatomie county, where a band
IF Shawnee Indians, led by Tecumse h's ,
grandson, Wapameepto, better known
n Oklahoma as Big Jim, lived many
ears.
Tecumseh. a small city four and one
lalf miles east of Topeka, was named {
after this Indian chief
Death of Dr. GoIdthwaite