Tecumseh and the Quest for Indian Leadership - Essay Example

Supervisor: Tecumseh Tecumseh is hailed as the greatest native leader of the Shawnee who influenced the extension of the whole Confederacy which was fighting against the United States in the battle in Tecumseh war as well as the war of 1812 (Hickey 30). Both the American and British contemporaries admired Tecumseh due to his fighting spirit for the interest of his people that never faded away. Tecumseh was an advocate of fairness and unity; he resisted the American attempt to annex Indians’ land with an argument that Indian lands were owned by the community and not individuals. This made the treaties that had allowed this annexation void since it was signed by individual chiefs (Klinck 43). He was also a skillful orator and a brave warrior. These traits made the Americans and the British admire him (Klinck 36). Although Tecumseh was the leader of the confederacy during the Tecumseh war and war of 1812, the relationship between the Shawnee and the Iroquois Confederacy was a mixed one, with some Iroquois speaking people being friendly and allied to the Shawnee and the others who were enemies to them. While the other groups were enemies to the Shawnee, the Mingo and the Huron groups were their allies (Edmunds 23). The reason for this mixed relationship between the Iroquois Confederacy and the Shawnee is the following: the Iroquois Confederacy pursued a territorial expansionism policy which caused a conflict with its neighbors. Consequently, the neighboring communities, such as the Mingo and the Huron (Wyandot), cooperated with the Shawnee people due to the threat of territorial loss they experienced from the Iroquois Confederacy (Klinck 45). However, the relationship between the Shawnee and the Iroquois Confederacy was that of enmity since the Iroquois Confederacy embarked on invading the hunting grounds previously owned by the Shawnee, eventually evicting the Shawnee from their native lands of Ohio. The Iroquois made the Shawnee their dependents (Edmunds 40). During the American war of Independence, the Shawnee, Native American tribe, opted for joining the British in the fight against rebel colonists. The Shawnee planned to become British allies since they hoped that joining hands with the British would help them evict the colonists from their territory and draw them back across the mountains (Klinck 49). Considering that the invasion of the British and the consequent treaty signed with the Iroquois Confederacy had allowed many Colonists to settle in the native Shawnee lands, they needed some support to evict the colonists, which - they hoped - the British would grant them since the colonists had rebelled against the British colony (Edmunds 54). This saw the Shawnee ally with the British during that war. The concepts of land use advocated for by the British caused friction between the Indians and the whites. Notably, the signing of the Royal Proclamation of 1763 which sought to draw a line of territory between the Whites and the Indians sparked a great conflict (Klinck 62). This treaty sought to establish a reserve for the Indians but eventually ended up causing the encroachment by the whites into the areas where the Indians had previously occupied. Additionally, the treaty signed between the British and the Iroquois Confederacy over land use angered the Shawnee who were the native occupants of these lands before they were evicted by the Iroquois Confederacy (Edmunds 22). Thus, these concepts of land ownership and land use sparked off conflicts between the Indians and the whites. Tenskwatawa was a Shawnee religious leader who advocated for the Indians to revert to their traditional lifestyle (Edmunds 47). There were various reasons why the teaching by Tenskwatawa became very attractive to the Native Americans. First, these teachings advocated for a return to the traditional ways of living for the Indians. He advocated for the traditional lifestyle that was not influenced by the white cultures (Klinck 50). Additionally, his teachings advocated for the creation of an Indian confederation that would help the Indians resist the invasion of their territory by the Americans (Klinck 51). His religious messages highly inspired the Indians who were desperate out of the invasion and encroachment of their lands by the whites, who also brought them deadly diseases (Edmunds 48). This made his teaching more interesting to the Native American Indians, who were inspired with hope that the evils they were experiencing would cease. However, Tecumseh, who was Tenskwatawa’s brother, got angered by him over the Battle of Tippecanoe because Tenskwatawa had lied to Indian warriors that his religious magic would help the Indians win the war, in which they later have been defeated by the whites (Klinck 70). Tenskwatawa had led to the death of many Indian warriors who, according to Tecumseh, were instrumental in putting resistance against attacks by the whites. Consequently, the Indian warriors were weakened and their future battle plans ruined. Thus, Tecumseh was angry because Tenskwatawa had lied that his religious powers would work for the benefits of the Indians (Klinck 68). Additionally, Tecumseh was angry because the battle plan that his brother had applied was ineffective, and it served to increase the animosity between the Indians and the whites considering that Tenskwatawa had started the battle in the name of establishing a treaty with the whites (Klinck 45). The War of 1812 was fought between the United States on the one hand and the British on the other. The British fought with the support of the Indians, and during the initial stages of the War of 1812, the Indians achieved success over the American settlers. This success was achieved due to the support that the Indians received from the British, who considered the Indians to be their friendly allies that could counter the American expansion (Hickey 30). Therefore, the British provided the Indians with arms which enabled them to defeat the American settlers in the initial stages of this war (Hickey 14). However, the goals of the British and Indians were different during the War of 1812. The Indians sought to counter the expansion of the American settlers and possibly evict them from their territory. On the other hand, the British were interested in weakening the American settlers who resisted the cession of their land by the British as provided under the Treaty of Paris in 1783 (Hickey 17). Works Cited Edmunds, David. Tecumseh and the Quest for Indian Leadership. New York: Pearson Longman, 2007. Print Hickey, Donald R. The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2012. Print. Klinck, Carl F. Tecumseh: Fact and Fiction in Early Records. Ottawa: Tecumseh Press, 1978. Print. Read More