White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1932-11-03


British troops, and
Tecumseh commanded 1000 In
dian warriors. Trum-
bull, the historian, calls him the most
extraordinary Indian character in Unit
ed States history.
He was born near Springfield, Ohio,
in 1769, the son Of Shawnee chief
and woman said to have been a
Creek. His elder brother became head
Of the family after his fathers death
in the battle of Point Pleasant, when
Tecumseh was only six years old. This
brother raised him to young manhood,
and was himself killed on the Ten
nessee frontier in 1888.
The border wars recruited Tecumseh
at an early age, and he was as eager
a warrior as any of his tribe, but 1t
ran against his inclinations to torture
prisoners, and he did all in his power
to stop this awful practice. He and
his brother Tenskwatawa, 'the
Prophet were entirely inimical to
the white men. They adopted the
stand that the whites should stay in
one part of the country and let the In
dams have another part. There was
room enough for all, and such an ar
rangement, Tecumseh thought, would
be both peaceful and profitable. He
claimed that the Ohio valley belonged
to all the tribes in common, and that
no one tribe had the right to sell or
cede land from this territory. This
claim pointed to Tecumseh's great
ideal, the confederation of all the west
ern and southern tribes. If this could
be accomplished, a boundary between
the whites and the Indians could be
established and enforced, he reasoned,
and the whites would be permanently
checked. With this plan in mind, the
intrepid Shawnee visited every tribe
from the head Of the Missouri river to
Florida, meeting. with some success,
although many chiefs advised against
this idea.
His brother, in the meantime, had
established headquarters at Greenville
Ohio, and was working along similar
lines, while advocating return to the
ancient Indian manner Of living. The
Prophet sent his emissaries as far as
Tecumseh himself had gone, each bear
ing the message Of rebellion. Inter-
ested men from these far-off tribes in
turn came to visit the Prophet and to
hear from his own lips the plans which
bo hod 1at
The Prophet, however, had become
over-eager to act. Tecumseh and he
had moved to Tppecanoe, Ind, at
the invitation of the Potawatomi, and
here their followers collected, be-
coming more and more obstreperous
as they gained in faith and numbers.
Tecumseh was away on his errand
and the Prophet did not hold back the
fiery spirit of his people, evidently be-
lieving that they could take care Of
any trouble they might get into.
Gen. William Henry Harrison, with
900 troops, finally started for Tippe-
canoe to quiet the Indians. Near the
town, he was attacked by about the
Prophet, who claimed to have the pow
er Of averting death in battle The en-
gagement was a fierce one At it's
end, Harrison's troops were victorious,
and the Indians were utterly defeated.
Many of them were wounded, and so
or 60 killed, in spite of the Prophets
power"
This battle proved disastrous to Te-
cumseh's enterprise, but the War of
1912, which broke out the following
year, offered him an opportunity to
relieve himself of some of the bitter
ness which was in his heart.
The high position given him by the
British, and the authority he was al
lowed to WELD, were not abused by the
Shawnee chief. He fought in some of
the most famous battles of the war,
one of which was the scene Of Perry's
victory on Lake Erie. Proctor, re-
treating, was at first covered by Te-
cumseh's men, but the Indian general
refused to go back further than the
Thames river, and compelled Proctor
to make stand and fight it out. The
battle which ensued, on October B,
1918, was a bloody one, and the Brit
ish and their Indian allies were abb
solutely defeated by Harrison and his
troops, who had so completely dis
persed the Prophets army in 1911. .
Previous to this engagement, Te-
cumseh had felt presentiment OF
death, put aside his generals uniform,
and dressed himself in deerskin; the
British general no longer, but an In.
dian chief and warrior, who wanted
to die as an Indian. 1t proved to be q
true forewarning, and the chief fell
in front of his warriors. 1t is said
that on one occasion Tecumseh had
exclaimed, "The sun is my father, and
the earth is my mother, and on her
bosom I will repose!"
e. 1892. Western Newspaper union.)
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