Useful Links
The Dying Tecumseh and the Birth of a Legend
A sculpture in the Smithsonian collection reveals much about how the Indians of the West were viewed in the early ages of the United States https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-dying-tecumseh-97830806/ Tecumseh Biography https://www.nps.gov/people/tecumseh.htm https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/tecumseh The treaty of Fort Wayne https://billofrightsinstitute.org/essays/tecumseh-and-the-prophet |
Primary Sources
Tecumseh and the Battle of Tippecanoe- perspective on Native American Participation in the War (various primary sources)
http://resourcesforhistoryteachers.pbworks.com/w/page/125023995/The%20War%20of%201812%20and%20Tecumseh Tecumseh Calls for Pan-Indian Resistance, 1810 Like Pontiac before him, Tecumseh articulated a spiritual message of unity and resistance. In this document, he acknowledges his Shawnee heritage, but appeals to a larger community of “red men,” who he describes as “once a happy race, since made miserable by the white people.” This document reveals not only Tecumseh’s message of resistance, but it also shows that Anglo-American understandings of race had spread to Native Americans as well. https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/the-early-republic/tecumseh-letter-to-william-henry-harrison-1810/ Tecumseh's "We Must Be United" Tecumseh allegedly delivered this speech to a band of Osages to solicit support for a pan-Indian confederacy to fight U.S. encroachment on their lands. The sole account of this speech is by John Dunn Hunter (1798?–1827), an Anglo-American, who claimed to have been raised among the Osages. Because Hunter’s Memoirs of a Captivity Among the Indians of North America (1823) prompted criticism of U.S. Indian policies, American officials quickly concerted counterattacks to discredit the author. Consequently, the authenticity of the speech has been widely questioned. However, United States War Department records validate that Tecumseh did visit the Osages in 1811 and Tecumseh’s reference to a great mid-western earthquake date the speech to roughly that same year. Though his trip was to end after meeting with the Osages, Tecumseh extended his campaigning northward up the Mississippi River after learning about the battle of Tippecanoe and the destruction of Prophetstown. Weakened by defeat and enjoying only marginal success in recruiting allies, Tecumseh and his confederacy fought the War of 1812 alongside the British. He was shot and killed by American troops in 1813 while continuing a stand on the Thames River, despite being abandoned by allied British troops on the battlefield. http://phsprimarysources.blogspot.com/2009/08/tecumsehs-we-must-be-united.html |
Lessons
Tecumseh Speaks on the Dreams of His People
Although the tenure of William Henry Harrison in the White House was brief, there is no shortage of stories about the hero of the Battle of Tippecanoe. He was a famed Indian fighter, frontier governor, and politician that eventually rode that fame into the White House. Anna Harrison and her husband William Henry Harrison lived during a time of massive Native American removal from the lands east of the Mississippi. In many ways Harrison can be considered the antagonist in this tale. If Harrison is the Antagonist, then surely the great Shawnee Chief Tecumseh is the tragic protagonist.
Objectives:
1 Students will be able to accurately describe the plan Tecumseh had to keep the whites from taking any more Indian land.
2 Students will interpret the tone and purpose of Tecumseh’s speech to William Henry Harrison in August of 1810.
3 Students will be able to list and discuss specific injustices perpetrated on Native Americans by the United States Government.
http://www.firstladies.org/curriculum/curriculum.aspx?Curriculum=1120
Nineteenth-Century Native American Viewpoints (lesson)
Objective
https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/lesson-plan/nineteenth-century-native-american-viewpoints
Although the tenure of William Henry Harrison in the White House was brief, there is no shortage of stories about the hero of the Battle of Tippecanoe. He was a famed Indian fighter, frontier governor, and politician that eventually rode that fame into the White House. Anna Harrison and her husband William Henry Harrison lived during a time of massive Native American removal from the lands east of the Mississippi. In many ways Harrison can be considered the antagonist in this tale. If Harrison is the Antagonist, then surely the great Shawnee Chief Tecumseh is the tragic protagonist.
Objectives:
1 Students will be able to accurately describe the plan Tecumseh had to keep the whites from taking any more Indian land.
2 Students will interpret the tone and purpose of Tecumseh’s speech to William Henry Harrison in August of 1810.
3 Students will be able to list and discuss specific injustices perpetrated on Native Americans by the United States Government.
http://www.firstladies.org/curriculum/curriculum.aspx?Curriculum=1120
Nineteenth-Century Native American Viewpoints (lesson)
Objective
- Identify and compare the ideas of major Native American leaders from the nineteenth century.
- Evaluate the impact of those ideas on the United States and Native Americans.
- Locate the original and final reservation territory for each of the Native American tribal groups represented in the excerpts.
https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/lesson-plan/nineteenth-century-native-american-viewpoints