1 00:00:01,312 --> 00:00:03,271 Viewers like you make this program possible. 2 00:00:03,396 --> 00:00:05,438 Support your local PBS station. 3 00:00:07,438 --> 00:00:10,479 (man speaking Native American language) 4 00:00:28,688 --> 00:00:31,813 It is a story at the heart of America... 5 00:00:34,896 --> 00:00:41,521 one richer and more surprising than we've been told. 6 00:00:43,271 --> 00:00:48,271 (tribal drumming) 7 00:00:50,646 --> 00:00:54,521 American Experience presents a story 8 00:00:54,646 --> 00:00:59,396 that spans 300 years and a vast continent. 9 00:00:59,479 --> 00:01:05,187 WOMAN: The greatest thing a person can have is the power. 10 00:01:06,771 --> 00:01:10,438 Benegotsi. It's scary. 11 00:01:10,563 --> 00:01:12,312 It is a story of hope... 12 00:01:13,688 --> 00:01:15,187 courage... 13 00:01:15,312 --> 00:01:17,813 and survival. 14 00:01:17,938 --> 00:01:20,938 We were about to be obliterated culturally. 15 00:01:21,062 --> 00:01:22,312 Our spiritual way of life, 16 00:01:22,438 --> 00:01:25,438 our entire way of life, was about to be stamped out. 17 00:01:25,521 --> 00:01:27,521 (roaring) 18 00:01:30,396 --> 00:01:33,563 MAN: Every tribe in this country has a time of horror-- 19 00:01:33,688 --> 00:01:38,813 absolute horror-- when they were confronted by this invader. 20 00:01:38,938 --> 00:01:46,187 MAN: What we did to the Southeastern Indians, it's ethnic cleansing. 21 00:01:46,271 --> 00:01:48,312 MAN: It was done to them, 22 00:01:48,438 --> 00:01:50,271 so they did it back. 23 00:01:54,312 --> 00:01:56,062 But better. 24 00:01:56,187 --> 00:01:58,187 MAN: Whatever means and manner we could, 25 00:01:58,312 --> 00:02:00,938 since the Europeans arrived here, 26 00:02:01,062 --> 00:02:02,896 we've had to fight for our survival. 27 00:02:04,771 --> 00:02:07,438 An epic history of America... 28 00:02:07,521 --> 00:02:10,730 (whooping) 29 00:02:12,104 --> 00:02:14,104 seen through Native eyes... 30 00:02:15,896 --> 00:02:16,980 too remarkable... 31 00:02:19,271 --> 00:02:21,146 too inspiring... 32 00:02:22,229 --> 00:02:24,354 to ever forget. 33 00:02:25,521 --> 00:02:30,521 The master of life has appointed this place 34 00:02:30,646 --> 00:02:32,896 for us to light our fires... 35 00:02:35,271 --> 00:02:38,521 And here we shall remain. 36 00:03:34,104 --> 00:03:37,646 NARRATOR: No pictures were ever made of him during his lifetime. 37 00:03:37,730 --> 00:03:40,396 No account in his own words was left behind. 38 00:03:42,146 --> 00:03:44,521 Looking back, the movement he led would seem in many ways 39 00:03:44,604 --> 00:03:47,855 to have been doomed to failure from the start. 40 00:03:48,980 --> 00:03:51,021 And yet in the course of his breathtakingly brief 41 00:03:51,146 --> 00:03:54,021 and meteoric career, he would rise to become 42 00:03:54,104 --> 00:03:56,896 one of the greatest Native American leaders of all time-- 43 00:03:56,980 --> 00:03:58,771 and one of the most gifted, farsighted, 44 00:03:58,896 --> 00:04:01,521 revered and inspiring-- 45 00:04:01,604 --> 00:04:03,146 forging, from the glowing embers 46 00:04:03,271 --> 00:04:05,396 of his younger brother's soaring vision, 47 00:04:05,521 --> 00:04:07,521 an extraordinary coalition, 48 00:04:07,646 --> 00:04:09,396 and orchestrating the most ambitious 49 00:04:09,521 --> 00:04:11,896 pan-Indian resistance movement ever mounted 50 00:04:12,021 --> 00:04:14,104 on the North American continent. 51 00:04:16,646 --> 00:04:19,562 KEVIN WILLIAMS: I mean, to be Shawnee, 52 00:04:19,646 --> 00:04:25,062 and to have Tecumseh be a member of that tribe is to be honored, 53 00:04:25,187 --> 00:04:29,187 to be honored to be in that tribe. 54 00:04:29,312 --> 00:04:32,813 He and his brother, you know, was trying to get 55 00:04:32,896 --> 00:04:34,563 the Shawnee people back to their roots 56 00:04:34,646 --> 00:04:38,312 and try to keep their lands from being taken. 57 00:04:38,396 --> 00:04:40,563 He was a visionary. 58 00:04:40,688 --> 00:04:42,938 And I think today, 59 00:04:43,062 --> 00:04:46,938 what would have happened if he had succeeded in his plan? 60 00:04:47,062 --> 00:04:48,813 It would have changed history. 61 00:04:51,062 --> 00:04:54,688 ANDREW WARRIOR: He had a vision to make sure that the Indian way of life 62 00:04:54,771 --> 00:04:58,062 was going to continue at whatever cost. 63 00:04:58,146 --> 00:05:02,312 This is a man-- an Indian man, a self-proclaimed leader, 64 00:05:02,396 --> 00:05:04,438 a self-proclaimed chief-- 65 00:05:04,563 --> 00:05:08,438 who stood up and said, "Hey, this is enough. 66 00:05:08,521 --> 00:05:10,813 "I don't want no more of this. 67 00:05:10,938 --> 00:05:12,813 You've taken enough." 68 00:05:12,938 --> 00:05:14,438 And he took a stand. 69 00:05:17,563 --> 00:05:19,688 STEPHEN WARREN: One way one might think of Tecumseh 70 00:05:19,771 --> 00:05:23,438 is as a man who led a revolution of young men-- 71 00:05:23,563 --> 00:05:28,312 young men who were tired of the accommodationist stance 72 00:05:28,438 --> 00:05:30,688 of their elders; 73 00:05:30,771 --> 00:05:34,062 young men who thought that the leadership structure 74 00:05:34,187 --> 00:05:39,438 of the Shawnee tribe needed to be reordered and reimagined 75 00:05:39,521 --> 00:05:43,938 in order for the Shawnees and all Native people to survive. 76 00:05:49,563 --> 00:05:53,438 DAVID EDMUNDS: What Tecumseh is fighting for is the ability of Indian people 77 00:05:53,563 --> 00:05:56,938 east of the Mississippi to hold onto their homelands. 78 00:05:57,062 --> 00:05:58,813 Their lands are under siege 79 00:05:58,938 --> 00:06:01,938 in the period after the American Revolution. 80 00:06:02,062 --> 00:06:05,062 The white frontier is moving into the Ohio Valley. 81 00:06:05,187 --> 00:06:08,062 It's also moving onto the Gulf Plains in the South. 82 00:06:08,187 --> 00:06:10,438 And Tecumseh says, "This has got to stop. 83 00:06:10,521 --> 00:06:14,312 We have to stand and all realize that we're in this together." 84 00:06:16,438 --> 00:06:18,438 I think Tecumseh's one of those people that, 85 00:06:18,521 --> 00:06:21,187 if he were alive today and would walk into a room, 86 00:06:21,271 --> 00:06:24,563 people would stop talking and just stare at him. 87 00:06:24,688 --> 00:06:28,187 Tribal people back in the first part of the 19th century would say, 88 00:06:28,312 --> 00:06:31,688 "Tecumseh is a man of very, very strong medicine." 89 00:06:31,813 --> 00:06:35,563 There was this aura around him of leadership and respect, 90 00:06:35,688 --> 00:06:37,813 that even people who opposed him-- 91 00:06:37,938 --> 00:06:39,688 even his enemies-- admired him. 92 00:06:39,771 --> 00:06:41,062 (speaking Shawnee) 93 00:06:41,187 --> 00:06:44,062 (whooping) 94 00:06:44,187 --> 00:06:46,938 EDMUNDS: His genius was in inspiring people. 95 00:06:47,021 --> 00:06:50,688 And he was a very inspirational man that was able to bring out 96 00:06:50,813 --> 00:06:53,563 the very best in those people who supported him. 97 00:06:53,646 --> 00:07:00,688 And to see beyond any particular tribal affiliation, 98 00:07:00,771 --> 00:07:02,688 and to realize that this was a struggle 99 00:07:02,771 --> 00:07:05,187 that was of greater magnitude. 100 00:07:07,521 --> 00:07:10,688 I also think that there was a spiritual component to this, 101 00:07:10,813 --> 00:07:14,563 that he believed that he was appointed 102 00:07:14,688 --> 00:07:18,563 by the powers in the universe to really bring people together 103 00:07:18,646 --> 00:07:20,438 and to make this stand 104 00:07:20,521 --> 00:07:25,062 and to retain what was left of the Indian homeland. 105 00:07:25,187 --> 00:07:27,062 This was his life. 106 00:07:27,187 --> 00:07:29,312 This was what he had been born to do. 107 00:07:32,062 --> 00:07:34,062 TECUMSEH: These lands are ours. 108 00:07:36,062 --> 00:07:38,062 No one has a right to remove us. 109 00:07:41,146 --> 00:07:44,438 The Master of Life knows no boundaries, 110 00:07:44,563 --> 00:07:46,938 nor will his red people acknowledge any. 111 00:07:51,521 --> 00:07:56,062 The Master of Life has appointed this place 112 00:07:56,187 --> 00:07:58,688 for us to light our fires. 113 00:08:02,312 --> 00:08:04,062 And here we shall remain. 114 00:08:14,563 --> 00:08:19,187 GEORGE BLANCHARD: Well, I've always heard "Teh-cum-theh." 115 00:08:19,312 --> 00:08:24,563 "Teh-cum-theh" means, in our culture and our belief, 116 00:08:24,688 --> 00:08:27,563 at nights, when we see a falling star, 117 00:08:27,688 --> 00:08:31,938 it means that this panther is jumping 118 00:08:32,021 --> 00:08:33,896 from one mountain to another. 119 00:08:34,021 --> 00:08:36,646 And as kids, when we saw these falling stars, 120 00:08:36,729 --> 00:08:39,521 we'd kind of hesitate about being out in the dark, 121 00:08:39,646 --> 00:08:42,021 because we thought there were actually 122 00:08:42,146 --> 00:08:44,646 panthers out there walking around. 123 00:08:44,771 --> 00:08:49,021 So that's what his name meant, Tecumseh. 124 00:09:01,104 --> 00:09:04,521 EDMUNDS: Ohio was a very special place for the Shawnees. 125 00:09:04,604 --> 00:09:06,396 The Shawnees called Ohio, and the Ohio Valley, 126 00:09:06,521 --> 00:09:08,896 the center of the world. 127 00:09:08,980 --> 00:09:12,146 It was an area where Shawnee villages dotted the river valleys. 128 00:09:12,229 --> 00:09:15,646 It was an area where one could come down from Ohio, 129 00:09:15,771 --> 00:09:17,021 cross the Ohio River 130 00:09:17,104 --> 00:09:19,646 and hunt into the bluegrass region of Kentucky, 131 00:09:19,771 --> 00:09:22,146 where, at this time, there were small herds of buffalo, 132 00:09:22,271 --> 00:09:24,271 there were elk, there were deer there. 133 00:09:27,396 --> 00:09:28,771 So it was a very special place, 134 00:09:28,896 --> 00:09:32,354 and it was a place which was very dear to Shawnee hearts. 135 00:09:36,896 --> 00:09:38,521 The word Shawnee means "Southerner" 136 00:09:38,604 --> 00:09:39,521 and they were called the Southerners 137 00:09:39,604 --> 00:09:41,646 by other Algonquin-speaking people. 138 00:09:43,855 --> 00:09:45,646 Shawnees had lived in the Ohio Valley off and on 139 00:09:45,771 --> 00:09:47,771 for a great period of time. 140 00:09:47,855 --> 00:09:50,021 They had scattered in the early 1700s, 141 00:09:50,146 --> 00:09:52,771 but they'd come back into Ohio, 142 00:09:52,896 --> 00:09:55,146 and they hunted extensively into Kentucky. 143 00:09:55,271 --> 00:09:56,896 (gunshots, whooping) 144 00:09:57,896 --> 00:10:02,646 COLIN CALLOWAY: Tecumseh was born around 1768. 145 00:10:02,771 --> 00:10:06,521 That's the same year that the huge treaty at Fort Stanwix 146 00:10:06,646 --> 00:10:10,396 in New York essentially opens up what is now Kentucky 147 00:10:10,521 --> 00:10:13,271 to English settlement. 148 00:10:13,354 --> 00:10:17,771 Much of that territory is Shawnee hunting territory. 149 00:10:17,855 --> 00:10:20,146 So right at the time of Tecumseh's birth, 150 00:10:20,229 --> 00:10:23,396 it's clear that issues of land 151 00:10:23,479 --> 00:10:27,396 and English or American access to this land 152 00:10:27,521 --> 00:10:30,771 are going to be vital factors in shaping his life. 153 00:10:34,104 --> 00:10:37,146 EDMUNDS: Tecumseh and his younger brother grew up in the midst 154 00:10:37,271 --> 00:10:40,521 of the American Revolution. 155 00:10:40,646 --> 00:10:42,021 And it was an exciting time, 156 00:10:42,104 --> 00:10:46,146 I'm sure, for a young Shawnee man to come to manhood, 157 00:10:46,271 --> 00:10:48,146 but it was also a time of danger 158 00:10:48,229 --> 00:10:50,021 and a time of a certain amount of turmoil. 159 00:10:52,229 --> 00:10:54,896 It was a time when Shawnee warriors went south 160 00:10:55,021 --> 00:10:58,896 across the river to strike at the frontier forts in Kentucky, 161 00:10:59,021 --> 00:11:00,771 and it was a time when the Shawnee villages 162 00:11:00,896 --> 00:11:03,646 north of the Ohio were attacked periodically 163 00:11:03,771 --> 00:11:06,730 by expeditions of Kentuckians into the region. 164 00:11:11,021 --> 00:11:14,146 NARRATOR: Named for the Kispokothe war clan into which he was born-- 165 00:11:14,271 --> 00:11:18,646 whose spiritual patron was a celestial panther leaping across the heavens-- 166 00:11:18,730 --> 00:11:20,521 he showed promise from the start: 167 00:11:20,646 --> 00:11:23,396 quick to learn, graceful and athletic, 168 00:11:23,521 --> 00:11:26,896 and touched with a striking natural charisma. 169 00:11:27,021 --> 00:11:29,646 "There was a certain something in his countenance and manner," 170 00:11:29,771 --> 00:11:32,896 a childhood friend recalled, "that always commanded respect 171 00:11:32,980 --> 00:11:35,271 and made those about him love him." 172 00:11:37,396 --> 00:11:39,271 The contrasts could not have been more striking 173 00:11:39,354 --> 00:11:41,646 with his troubled younger brother, Lalawethika. 174 00:11:44,354 --> 00:11:47,521 EDMUNDS: Lalawethika was seven years younger than Tecumseh 175 00:11:47,646 --> 00:11:49,396 and grew up in his brother's shadow. 176 00:11:49,479 --> 00:11:52,146 He was very unsuccessful as a little child. 177 00:11:52,229 --> 00:11:55,271 His nickname was Lalawethika, which means "the noise maker." 178 00:11:55,354 --> 00:11:59,021 I think translated idiomatically it probably meant loudmouth, 179 00:11:59,104 --> 00:12:01,104 a person that makes a lot of noise. 180 00:12:02,980 --> 00:12:05,146 As a child of about ten or 12 years old, 181 00:12:05,271 --> 00:12:07,146 he shoots his own eye out 182 00:12:07,271 --> 00:12:10,146 while fooling around with a bow and arrow, 183 00:12:10,271 --> 00:12:14,021 and just is not a very happy young child. 184 00:12:14,146 --> 00:12:17,146 Tecumseh! 185 00:12:17,229 --> 00:12:19,896 (birds chirping) 186 00:12:20,021 --> 00:12:23,021 NARRATOR: In the end, no Shawnee family would be left untouched 187 00:12:23,146 --> 00:12:27,521 by the rising tide of violence in the Ohio River Valley. 188 00:12:27,646 --> 00:12:30,896 WARREN: Tecumseh and Lalawethika lost their father 189 00:12:31,021 --> 00:12:33,396 when Tecumseh was seven. 190 00:12:33,479 --> 00:12:39,771 Their mother left for Missouri in 1779 after horrifying warfare 191 00:12:39,855 --> 00:12:43,896 between the Long Knives and the Shawnees. 192 00:12:44,021 --> 00:12:47,396 So that by the time Lalawethika was 13, 193 00:12:47,479 --> 00:12:49,896 roughly half of their immediate family members 194 00:12:50,021 --> 00:12:55,521 had either been killed or had voluntarily removed from Ohio. 195 00:12:59,021 --> 00:13:00,146 NARRATOR: For the Shawnees as a whole, 196 00:13:00,271 --> 00:13:02,771 the outcome of the American Revolution would prove 197 00:13:02,896 --> 00:13:04,271 nothing less than cataclysmic. 198 00:13:06,521 --> 00:13:09,521 All through the war they fought valiantly on the British side 199 00:13:09,604 --> 00:13:12,396 in defense of their homelands without losing a battle, 200 00:13:12,479 --> 00:13:15,146 only to discover following the British surrender 201 00:13:15,229 --> 00:13:16,896 that their one-time allies had ceded 202 00:13:17,021 --> 00:13:19,021 all lands west of the Appalachians 203 00:13:19,104 --> 00:13:21,771 to the new American republic. 204 00:13:21,896 --> 00:13:26,396 CALLOWAY: At the Peace of Paris in 1783, no Indians are there. 205 00:13:26,521 --> 00:13:31,271 The terms of the treaty do not even mention Indian people, 206 00:13:31,396 --> 00:13:32,771 and yet this is a treaty 207 00:13:32,896 --> 00:13:35,771 that has huge significance for Indians. 208 00:13:35,896 --> 00:13:40,771 Britain transfers to the new United States all territory 209 00:13:40,896 --> 00:13:43,771 that it has claimed south of the Great Lakes, 210 00:13:43,896 --> 00:13:46,771 east of the Mississippi, north of Florida. 211 00:13:46,855 --> 00:13:50,146 That is Indian country. 212 00:13:50,271 --> 00:13:55,021 For the United States, it's a crucial resource. 213 00:13:55,146 --> 00:13:58,896 Land is the basis of the new nation. 214 00:13:59,021 --> 00:14:01,146 Land is the opportunity to create 215 00:14:01,271 --> 00:14:05,271 what Jefferson comes to call an "empire of liberty." 216 00:14:05,396 --> 00:14:09,021 But you have to get that land from Indian people. 217 00:14:09,146 --> 00:14:11,271 And within a few years, 218 00:14:11,396 --> 00:14:13,271 Indian people begin to recoil from that 219 00:14:13,354 --> 00:14:17,396 and to recognize the degree to which 220 00:14:17,521 --> 00:14:22,021 the United States represents a major threat to their existence. 221 00:14:22,146 --> 00:14:25,896 Indian nations begin to unite in a confederation 222 00:14:26,021 --> 00:14:27,146 to resist that expansion. 223 00:14:30,104 --> 00:14:32,146 NARRATOR: In the alliance of tribes that now rose up 224 00:14:32,229 --> 00:14:35,646 to stop the white invasion, the Shawnees would take the lead, 225 00:14:35,771 --> 00:14:38,271 and Tecumseh himself first make a name for himself 226 00:14:38,396 --> 00:14:40,771 on the field of battle in what would prove to be 227 00:14:40,896 --> 00:14:43,521 the beginning of an epic 30-year-long struggle 228 00:14:43,604 --> 00:14:45,896 waged across a thousand miles 229 00:14:46,021 --> 00:14:48,646 that would permanently shape the physical and moral geography 230 00:14:48,771 --> 00:14:50,021 of the new nation. 231 00:14:50,104 --> 00:14:51,271 (whooping) 232 00:14:51,396 --> 00:14:53,021 EDMUNDS: The area they called the Old Northwest-- 233 00:14:53,104 --> 00:14:54,021 the area north of the Ohio-- 234 00:14:54,104 --> 00:14:55,396 was sort of up for grabs 235 00:14:55,521 --> 00:14:57,271 in the period after the American Revolution. 236 00:14:57,354 --> 00:15:00,396 The British still had forts at Detroit 237 00:15:00,479 --> 00:15:03,646 and they still had a lot of influence among the tribes 238 00:15:03,771 --> 00:15:06,146 because they were operating out of Canada. 239 00:15:06,271 --> 00:15:07,896 And the British are not even sure 240 00:15:08,021 --> 00:15:11,396 whether the new United States is going to stand. 241 00:15:11,521 --> 00:15:14,271 And they feel that if the United States goes under, 242 00:15:14,396 --> 00:15:18,271 they want to be able to move back into this region in force. 243 00:15:18,396 --> 00:15:21,146 And so the British keep telling the Indians, 244 00:15:21,271 --> 00:15:23,146 "Well, you should stand up against the United States 245 00:15:23,271 --> 00:15:27,521 and we will supply you with guns and ammunition." 246 00:15:27,604 --> 00:15:28,646 (whooping) 247 00:15:28,771 --> 00:15:30,146 NARRATOR: For six long years, 248 00:15:30,229 --> 00:15:33,146 the Shawnees and their allies kept U.S. forces on the run, 249 00:15:33,271 --> 00:15:36,646 all but destroying the American army in 1792 250 00:15:36,771 --> 00:15:38,271 in northern Indiana, 251 00:15:38,396 --> 00:15:40,271 only to be stopped two years later 252 00:15:40,396 --> 00:15:43,146 at the battle of Fallen Timbers in northern Ohio, 253 00:15:43,271 --> 00:15:45,021 where a well-planned retreat 254 00:15:45,104 --> 00:15:46,646 to the safety of a nearby British fort 255 00:15:46,771 --> 00:15:49,896 was turned into a disaster for the Indian Confederacy 256 00:15:50,021 --> 00:15:52,021 and a bitter lesson in British reliability 257 00:15:52,146 --> 00:15:55,146 that Tecumseh would never forget. 258 00:15:55,271 --> 00:15:56,896 EDMUNDS: Tecumseh fights in the battle 259 00:15:56,980 --> 00:15:58,896 and eventually has to withdraw 260 00:15:58,980 --> 00:16:02,271 with part of his warriors towards the British fort. 261 00:16:02,396 --> 00:16:03,646 The tribal people assume 262 00:16:03,730 --> 00:16:05,396 that the British are going to let them into the fort 263 00:16:05,521 --> 00:16:08,146 and that there'll be another stand made there. 264 00:16:08,271 --> 00:16:11,396 But the British refuse them entrance. 265 00:16:11,521 --> 00:16:14,021 CALLOWAY: The British slam the gates of the fort in their faces, 266 00:16:14,104 --> 00:16:18,396 fearful of a renewed war with the United States. 267 00:16:18,521 --> 00:16:21,021 To the Indians-- to Tecumseh-- 268 00:16:21,146 --> 00:16:23,730 this is another act of British betrayal. 269 00:16:25,021 --> 00:16:28,646 EDMUNDS: Well, Fallen Timbers is a disaster for tribal people. 270 00:16:28,771 --> 00:16:30,396 And it is following this battle 271 00:16:30,521 --> 00:16:34,396 that the tribes are forced to sign the Treaty of Greenville, 272 00:16:34,479 --> 00:16:39,396 giving up about the southeastern two thirds of Ohio. 273 00:16:39,521 --> 00:16:43,146 Tecumseh refuses to sign the treaty. 274 00:16:43,229 --> 00:16:46,396 He even refuses to participate in the proceedings. 275 00:16:46,521 --> 00:16:51,021 Tecumseh is incensed that they are now forced to give up 276 00:16:51,146 --> 00:16:53,896 much of his former homeland. 277 00:16:53,980 --> 00:16:55,771 But this is the death knell, in many ways, 278 00:16:55,896 --> 00:16:58,646 for the tribes in the Old Northwest. 279 00:17:00,646 --> 00:17:05,437 DONALD FIXICO: The natural world that the Shawnees knew was changing. 280 00:17:05,521 --> 00:17:08,687 The eastern tribes are being pushed farther into their lands. 281 00:17:08,771 --> 00:17:13,437 Their observations of deer being less, bear being less, 282 00:17:13,562 --> 00:17:16,562 the receding of wild game. 283 00:17:16,687 --> 00:17:20,562 And so Tecumseh knows he has to construct some type of plan. 284 00:17:20,646 --> 00:17:23,687 And it has to be a large plan in order to confront 285 00:17:23,812 --> 00:17:25,937 this huge westward expansion 286 00:17:26,021 --> 00:17:28,311 that begins to pulsate into different areas, 287 00:17:28,437 --> 00:17:30,438 into the Great Lakes area 288 00:17:30,563 --> 00:17:32,813 and into the southeast part of the United States. 289 00:17:32,938 --> 00:17:36,896 But how do you stop this huge westward expansion? 290 00:17:43,062 --> 00:17:45,062 NARRATOR: The Treaty of Greenville marked a crucial turning point 291 00:17:45,187 --> 00:17:47,813 in the battle for the eastern half of the continent, 292 00:17:47,938 --> 00:17:50,938 opening the Ohio River Valley to a flood of white settlers, 293 00:17:51,062 --> 00:17:53,187 and hemming the Shawnees and their allies 294 00:17:53,312 --> 00:17:54,813 onto dwindling tracts of land 295 00:17:54,938 --> 00:17:57,896 too small to sustain the old ways of life. 296 00:17:59,312 --> 00:18:01,688 Even in the newly created Territory of Indiana, 297 00:18:01,813 --> 00:18:04,438 into which Tecumseh and his followers now retreated, 298 00:18:04,563 --> 00:18:06,187 hoping to find refuge, 299 00:18:06,271 --> 00:18:08,938 a systematic policy of land loss and dispossession 300 00:18:09,062 --> 00:18:11,563 was soon put into place by American politicians 301 00:18:11,688 --> 00:18:15,187 eager to effect the transfer of land any way they could 302 00:18:15,312 --> 00:18:18,062 and convinced the Indian way of life was dying. 303 00:18:20,938 --> 00:18:23,187 "The American settlements will gradually circumscribe 304 00:18:23,312 --> 00:18:24,813 and approach the Indians," 305 00:18:24,896 --> 00:18:27,563 President Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1801, 306 00:18:27,688 --> 00:18:29,438 "who will in time either incorporate with us 307 00:18:29,563 --> 00:18:31,438 "as citizens of the United States 308 00:18:31,563 --> 00:18:33,438 "or remove beyond the Mississippi. 309 00:18:35,396 --> 00:18:37,062 "Some tribes are advancing, 310 00:18:37,187 --> 00:18:40,312 "and on these, English seductions will have no effect. 311 00:18:40,438 --> 00:18:42,312 "But the backward will yield, 312 00:18:42,438 --> 00:18:45,438 "and be thrown further back into barbarism and misery, 313 00:18:45,563 --> 00:18:47,187 "and we shall be obliged to drive them 314 00:18:47,271 --> 00:18:50,563 with the beasts of the forest into the stony mountains." 315 00:18:52,438 --> 00:18:55,813 WARREN: I don't think we appreciate just how ruthless 316 00:18:55,938 --> 00:19:00,438 Thomas Jefferson was as president in 1801 317 00:19:00,521 --> 00:19:04,938 and how ruthless folks like Jefferson's territorial governor, 318 00:19:05,021 --> 00:19:06,938 William Henry Harrison, were in the period 319 00:19:07,021 --> 00:19:09,938 specifically after 1800. 320 00:19:10,062 --> 00:19:14,062 The Americans employed what was called the "factory system." 321 00:19:14,187 --> 00:19:15,813 And what that was 322 00:19:15,938 --> 00:19:19,187 was the establishment of government forts 323 00:19:19,271 --> 00:19:20,938 throughout the Old Northwest 324 00:19:21,062 --> 00:19:24,563 where the government would accept furs 325 00:19:24,688 --> 00:19:27,187 in exchange for goods. 326 00:19:27,312 --> 00:19:31,938 And it became a way of making Native people 327 00:19:32,021 --> 00:19:35,688 into debtors of the United States. 328 00:19:35,813 --> 00:19:38,438 And when Thomas Jefferson becomes president, 329 00:19:38,521 --> 00:19:42,187 in his first term, he writes William Henry Harrison and says, 330 00:19:42,271 --> 00:19:44,062 you know, essentially: 331 00:19:44,146 --> 00:19:48,187 "Through the factory system, Native people will incur debts 332 00:19:48,312 --> 00:19:50,312 "beyond what they are willing to pay. 333 00:19:50,438 --> 00:19:52,688 "And they will only be able to pay those back 334 00:19:52,813 --> 00:19:54,563 through a cession of lands." 335 00:19:57,688 --> 00:20:01,062 JOHN SUGDEN: So, for the Shawnees, for Tecumseh, 336 00:20:01,187 --> 00:20:04,563 it was a period of continual dispossession, 337 00:20:04,688 --> 00:20:10,688 continual violence and continual retreat. 338 00:20:10,771 --> 00:20:14,312 There is no place at that time you could really, 339 00:20:14,438 --> 00:20:18,312 if you were a Shawnee, have called home 340 00:20:18,438 --> 00:20:21,771 because it was constantly being taken off you. 341 00:20:24,938 --> 00:20:27,062 WARREN: So that by 1805, 342 00:20:27,146 --> 00:20:30,187 Native people find themselves confined 343 00:20:30,312 --> 00:20:33,688 to a small corridor of land-- really a spit of land-- 344 00:20:33,813 --> 00:20:37,062 in northwestern Ohio and northeastern Indiana. 345 00:20:37,146 --> 00:20:38,938 That's all that's left to them. 346 00:20:39,021 --> 00:20:43,021 And it is not enough to continue a hunting tradition. 347 00:20:44,938 --> 00:20:49,563 What was happening to them was a tragedy of epic proportions. 348 00:20:49,688 --> 00:20:51,563 Men could no longer hunt; 349 00:20:51,688 --> 00:20:55,688 they could no longer operate as life-sustaining killers; 350 00:20:55,813 --> 00:20:59,062 they could not feed their families via hunting; 351 00:20:59,146 --> 00:21:02,688 they were on a constant war footing. 352 00:21:02,813 --> 00:21:05,438 And another horrifying aspect of it 353 00:21:05,521 --> 00:21:09,187 is that so many men have tried to protect their people 354 00:21:09,312 --> 00:21:11,563 through war, and have died doing it, 355 00:21:11,688 --> 00:21:17,938 that these villages are totally out of balance. 356 00:21:18,062 --> 00:21:21,563 So that there are probably double the number of women 357 00:21:21,688 --> 00:21:26,563 as men in any Native village in 1805 358 00:21:26,688 --> 00:21:28,062 because of this war of attrition. 359 00:21:29,688 --> 00:21:34,563 And so these are not only broken homes, but broken communities. 360 00:21:37,146 --> 00:21:40,813 EDMUNDS: It is a time in which disease flourishes and spreads 361 00:21:40,938 --> 00:21:44,312 across many of the tribes of the Ohio Valley. 362 00:21:44,438 --> 00:21:45,938 It is a time when alcoholism 363 00:21:46,021 --> 00:21:47,438 begins to spread among the tribe. 364 00:21:47,563 --> 00:21:50,187 The very fabric of tribal society-- 365 00:21:50,312 --> 00:21:53,438 the kinship systems-- seem to be under stress. 366 00:21:53,563 --> 00:21:55,062 And it's a time when, I think, 367 00:21:55,187 --> 00:21:57,438 a lot of Shawnees are having second thoughts about, 368 00:21:57,563 --> 00:21:59,062 "Who are we, and what is going on here? 369 00:21:59,187 --> 00:22:03,312 "Why has the Master of Life turned his face from us? 370 00:22:03,438 --> 00:22:04,813 "What has happened to us? 371 00:22:04,938 --> 00:22:06,438 (coughing) 372 00:22:06,563 --> 00:22:09,521 "What have we done to cause this?" 373 00:22:13,312 --> 00:22:15,813 NARRATOR: By the spring of 1805, 374 00:22:15,938 --> 00:22:17,813 the misery and suffering in northern Indiana 375 00:22:17,938 --> 00:22:20,187 had reached the breaking point. 376 00:22:20,312 --> 00:22:22,563 In Tecumseh's village along the White River, 377 00:22:22,688 --> 00:22:24,312 even so great a provider as he 378 00:22:24,438 --> 00:22:26,563 was helpless to defend his people from the rain of woe 379 00:22:26,688 --> 00:22:29,062 now descending upon them; 380 00:22:29,187 --> 00:22:33,062 while almost day by day, his younger brother, Lalawethika, 381 00:22:33,187 --> 00:22:34,438 a failed hunter and warrior, 382 00:22:34,563 --> 00:22:36,563 who had tried without success to support his family 383 00:22:36,688 --> 00:22:38,688 as a holy man and healer, 384 00:22:38,813 --> 00:22:42,563 sank further and further into an abyss of shame and despair. 385 00:22:45,146 --> 00:22:47,938 WARREN: I think that Lalawethika fell victim 386 00:22:48,062 --> 00:22:52,896 to all of the worst unintended consequences of colonialism. 387 00:22:55,062 --> 00:22:57,062 You know, he was an alcoholic; 388 00:22:57,187 --> 00:23:01,688 and many viewed him as lazy; prone to violence; 389 00:23:01,813 --> 00:23:03,563 he abused his wife. 390 00:23:04,688 --> 00:23:08,312 And so every opportunity 391 00:23:08,438 --> 00:23:11,688 that Lalawethika had to distinguish himself 392 00:23:11,813 --> 00:23:14,312 resulted in failure. 393 00:23:17,938 --> 00:23:22,563 And, by most accounts, he could not support his family. 394 00:23:22,688 --> 00:23:25,938 So that he was dependent upon Tecumseh, and others like him, 395 00:23:26,062 --> 00:23:28,688 to literally feed his family. 396 00:23:28,813 --> 00:23:33,187 He was so caught up in the sadness and the despair 397 00:23:33,312 --> 00:23:37,563 of dependency upon the United State in the form of alcohol 398 00:23:37,688 --> 00:23:41,688 and the fur trade, of land loss. 399 00:23:41,813 --> 00:23:44,312 It was so destructive, and such a sad time. 400 00:23:47,813 --> 00:23:49,938 NARRATOR: It would be all the more surprising, then, 401 00:23:50,062 --> 00:23:52,187 in the dark spring of 1805, 402 00:23:52,271 --> 00:23:56,438 as the universe continued to come unhinged for the Shawnees 403 00:23:56,521 --> 00:23:58,312 that a message of terrifying beauty and hope 404 00:23:58,438 --> 00:24:00,187 would be brought to the beleaguered people, 405 00:24:00,271 --> 00:24:03,938 coming in their very darkest hour, and in the end, 406 00:24:04,021 --> 00:24:06,187 from the least likely of sources. 407 00:24:27,938 --> 00:24:30,521 (crying) 408 00:25:06,813 --> 00:25:09,187 (thunderclap) 409 00:25:12,021 --> 00:25:15,938 (sobbing) 410 00:25:23,938 --> 00:25:27,312 WARREN: In 1805, his family recalls an event 411 00:25:27,438 --> 00:25:34,813 in which Lalawethika falls into a fire. 412 00:25:34,938 --> 00:25:37,062 He just... he collapses. 413 00:25:37,187 --> 00:25:39,688 And everyone in his immediate family, 414 00:25:39,813 --> 00:25:43,438 and in his immediate vicinity, believes that he's dead. 415 00:25:53,438 --> 00:25:56,396 (speaking Shawnee) 416 00:26:19,312 --> 00:26:21,813 But he miraculously comes back to life. 417 00:26:24,062 --> 00:26:26,062 He wakes up to report a vision 418 00:26:26,187 --> 00:26:29,896 of extraordinary breadth and power. 419 00:26:39,646 --> 00:26:41,187 I died. 420 00:26:43,146 --> 00:26:46,688 I was carried in a dream by the Master of Life 421 00:26:46,771 --> 00:26:48,688 down into the spirit world 422 00:26:48,813 --> 00:26:53,146 until we came to a parting of the ways. 423 00:26:56,187 --> 00:26:59,938 To the right lay the road to paradise, 424 00:27:00,062 --> 00:27:03,813 open only to the virtuous few. 425 00:27:07,438 --> 00:27:13,187 To the left, I saw an army of forsaken souls 426 00:27:13,312 --> 00:27:18,062 stumbling on towards three dark houses, 427 00:27:18,146 --> 00:27:23,521 fearful dwellings of punishment and pain. 428 00:27:27,396 --> 00:27:33,771 I saw unrepentant drunkards forced to swallow molten lead. 429 00:27:35,187 --> 00:27:38,438 And when they drank it their bowels were seized 430 00:27:38,563 --> 00:27:41,563 with an exquisite burning. 431 00:27:45,438 --> 00:27:49,813 At the last house their torment was inexpressible. 432 00:27:49,896 --> 00:27:55,062 I heard their screams, crying pitifully, 433 00:27:55,146 --> 00:28:00,438 roaring like the falls of a great river. 434 00:28:17,563 --> 00:28:21,813 CALLOWAY: When Lalawethika recovers from his vision, 435 00:28:21,938 --> 00:28:26,312 he says that he has come with a message. 436 00:28:26,438 --> 00:28:31,563 And the message is, I think, a message of revitalization, 437 00:28:31,646 --> 00:28:34,438 of restoration, for a people who've lost their way 438 00:28:34,563 --> 00:28:36,813 in the way that he had lost his way. 439 00:28:36,896 --> 00:28:39,688 He is a reformed individual. 440 00:28:39,813 --> 00:28:44,062 He takes a new name for himself: Tenskwatawa, "the Open Door." 441 00:28:44,187 --> 00:28:46,938 And the message that he brings-- 442 00:28:47,062 --> 00:28:50,312 that Indian people can make themselves whole again 443 00:28:50,396 --> 00:28:53,438 by rejecting the worst influences 444 00:28:53,563 --> 00:28:55,813 that white people have brought to them-- 445 00:28:55,938 --> 00:28:58,062 hits a powerful chord. 446 00:28:58,187 --> 00:29:02,438 It gives people who may have lost hope a new hope. 447 00:29:02,521 --> 00:29:03,688 It gives them a direction. 448 00:29:03,813 --> 00:29:07,438 It gives them an opportunity to remake themselves, 449 00:29:07,563 --> 00:29:08,938 to restore themselves, 450 00:29:09,021 --> 00:29:13,438 by reviving their Indian culture and identity. 451 00:29:13,563 --> 00:29:18,688 SUGDEN: Well, the impact is he reforms instantly. 452 00:29:18,771 --> 00:29:21,312 He suddenly doesn't drink anymore. 453 00:29:21,396 --> 00:29:23,938 And he is preaching to others now that, 454 00:29:24,062 --> 00:29:26,062 "If you want to save yourselves, 455 00:29:26,187 --> 00:29:31,062 you have to have a personal revolution in your way of life." 456 00:29:33,312 --> 00:29:36,438 My children... 457 00:29:36,563 --> 00:29:41,438 the Great Spirit bids me to say to you thus: 458 00:29:41,563 --> 00:29:44,438 You must not dress like the whites. 459 00:29:46,771 --> 00:29:50,938 You must not get drunk. 460 00:29:51,021 --> 00:29:52,896 It displeases the Great Spirit. 461 00:29:55,062 --> 00:29:58,688 WARREN: And he formulated a message that appealed 462 00:29:58,813 --> 00:30:04,938 to a great many Shawnee, Delaware, Wyandotte, Kickapoo, 463 00:30:05,062 --> 00:30:10,438 Pottawatomie because that was their experience at the time. 464 00:30:10,563 --> 00:30:13,187 You know, this is a world totally out of balance. 465 00:30:15,187 --> 00:30:20,563 And so his vision is the vision for all Native people, 466 00:30:20,646 --> 00:30:22,938 in a broad way. 467 00:30:23,062 --> 00:30:25,187 It's intended for everyone. 468 00:30:25,312 --> 00:30:29,938 And as a recovered alcoholic, you know, 469 00:30:30,062 --> 00:30:32,187 he could speak to people 470 00:30:32,312 --> 00:30:34,062 who had not had that conversion experience, 471 00:30:34,146 --> 00:30:36,771 who were still caught up in that cycle of despair. 472 00:30:38,938 --> 00:30:41,563 SUGDEN: He took the name Tenskwatawa, the Open Door, 473 00:30:41,646 --> 00:30:44,187 which was a way of... he was suggesting 474 00:30:44,312 --> 00:30:49,312 that he was a way that you could reach grace through him. 475 00:30:49,438 --> 00:30:52,187 He was a doorway to salvation. 476 00:30:55,021 --> 00:30:57,438 NARRATOR: Friends and family members were astonished by the changes 477 00:30:57,563 --> 00:31:00,563 that had transformed Lalawethika almost overnight, 478 00:31:00,646 --> 00:31:03,563 and none more so than Tecumseh himself, 479 00:31:03,688 --> 00:31:06,062 who, all through the fall and winter of 1805, 480 00:31:06,187 --> 00:31:09,062 looked on thoughtfully as young men from across the Midwest 481 00:31:09,146 --> 00:31:11,187 trooped into their village along the White River 482 00:31:11,312 --> 00:31:13,312 in increasing number, 483 00:31:13,438 --> 00:31:16,187 drawn by his brother's siren call of renewal, 484 00:31:16,271 --> 00:31:18,312 and by his brother himself, 485 00:31:18,396 --> 00:31:21,312 who would soon be known simply as the Prophet. 486 00:31:24,312 --> 00:31:30,438 (speaking Shawnee) 487 00:31:30,521 --> 00:31:36,688 Now, my children, I charge you not to speak of this talk 488 00:31:36,771 --> 00:31:38,187 to the whites. 489 00:31:38,312 --> 00:31:40,813 (response in Shawnee) 490 00:31:40,938 --> 00:31:43,187 The world is not as it was at first... 491 00:31:45,187 --> 00:31:48,187 but it is broken... 492 00:31:48,271 --> 00:31:50,062 and leans down. 493 00:31:50,187 --> 00:31:55,312 And those that are on the slope, from the Chippewas and further 494 00:31:55,438 --> 00:32:01,187 will all die if the earth should fall. 495 00:32:01,312 --> 00:32:07,563 Therefore, if they would live, 496 00:32:07,688 --> 00:32:12,938 let them send to me two persons from each village 497 00:32:13,021 --> 00:32:16,938 to be instructed so as to prevent it. 498 00:32:20,187 --> 00:32:21,563 WARREN: I think Tecumseh understands 499 00:32:21,646 --> 00:32:26,438 that there are a whole bunch of wounded warriors out there, 500 00:32:26,521 --> 00:32:30,312 and by wounded I mean people who are psychologically wounded, 501 00:32:30,396 --> 00:32:31,813 people who are culturally wounded. 502 00:32:31,896 --> 00:32:34,938 And I think he sees Tenskwatawa's vision 503 00:32:35,062 --> 00:32:38,312 as a means of inspiring them to act, 504 00:32:38,438 --> 00:32:42,813 to pick up their feet, you know, and to join him. 505 00:32:42,938 --> 00:32:45,813 So he parlays Tenskwatawa's vision 506 00:32:45,896 --> 00:32:51,563 into that kind of pan-Indian organizational scheme. 507 00:32:51,688 --> 00:32:54,438 SUGDEN: And very quickly, as early as 1806, 508 00:32:54,563 --> 00:32:58,438 you see a political plan coming into it. 509 00:32:58,563 --> 00:33:01,312 Tecumseh is saying, 510 00:33:01,396 --> 00:33:06,563 "We can use this movement to reunify this broken people, 511 00:33:06,688 --> 00:33:08,438 the Shawnees." 512 00:33:08,563 --> 00:33:10,688 Which was a long-desired dream of Shawnee leaders, 513 00:33:10,771 --> 00:33:14,438 was to bring this scattered tribe together, 514 00:33:14,521 --> 00:33:17,062 make them of consequence again. 515 00:33:17,146 --> 00:33:18,771 (speaking Shawnee) 516 00:33:25,187 --> 00:33:27,521 (speaking Shawnee) 517 00:33:33,187 --> 00:33:34,813 NARRATOR: In the spring of 1806, 518 00:33:34,938 --> 00:33:38,062 the two brothers took their first decisive step. 519 00:33:38,146 --> 00:33:40,938 Eager to establish a center for the new movement 520 00:33:41,021 --> 00:33:42,813 and to re-assert the Shawnee claim to homelands 521 00:33:42,896 --> 00:33:44,187 already ceded by treaty, 522 00:33:44,312 --> 00:33:47,813 they moved their village to a new site in western Ohio 523 00:33:47,896 --> 00:33:49,938 on the American side of the line established 524 00:33:50,021 --> 00:33:52,187 by the Treaty of Greenville ten years earlier, 525 00:33:52,312 --> 00:33:54,563 in open defiance of the American government, 526 00:33:54,688 --> 00:33:58,187 then sent out messengers to villages across the region, 527 00:33:58,312 --> 00:34:00,062 often led by Tecumseh himself. 528 00:34:00,187 --> 00:34:04,438 The Shawnees have heretofore been scattered about in parties, 529 00:34:04,563 --> 00:34:07,563 which we have found has been attended with bad consequences. 530 00:34:07,688 --> 00:34:12,146 We are now going to gather them all together to one town 531 00:34:12,229 --> 00:34:14,896 that one chief may keep them in good order 532 00:34:14,979 --> 00:34:21,104 and prevent sickness, want and shame from coming among them. 533 00:34:22,771 --> 00:34:26,646 EDMUNDS: Initially, Tecumseh remains in the Prophet's shadow. 534 00:34:26,771 --> 00:34:29,646 We know that he's aware of his brother's transformation; 535 00:34:29,771 --> 00:34:33,146 we know that the brother lives in, quote, "Tecumseh's village." 536 00:34:33,229 --> 00:34:34,521 But it is the Prophet 537 00:34:34,646 --> 00:34:38,146 that first attracts the tribal people to the village. 538 00:34:41,229 --> 00:34:43,396 NARRATOR: From the start, the new movement sent shock waves 539 00:34:43,479 --> 00:34:45,021 surging through Indian country, 540 00:34:45,104 --> 00:34:48,896 unsettling Native communities already rocked by decades of change 541 00:34:48,979 --> 00:34:51,521 and deeply dividing the Shawnees themselves 542 00:34:51,604 --> 00:34:53,521 along with other worn-down tribes, 543 00:34:53,646 --> 00:34:56,646 like the Delawares and the Wyandottes. 544 00:34:56,771 --> 00:34:59,021 SUGDEN: The Shawnee chiefs in Ohio saw a power struggle 545 00:34:59,146 --> 00:35:01,021 in it straight away. 546 00:35:01,104 --> 00:35:04,521 They saw, "This is a man, from a junior division of the Shawnees, 547 00:35:04,604 --> 00:35:06,396 "bidding for power and we're damn well 548 00:35:06,521 --> 00:35:08,146 not going to give it to him." 549 00:35:08,229 --> 00:35:11,896 CALLOWAY: Even within Tecumseh's own nation, 550 00:35:12,021 --> 00:35:16,396 there are Shawnees who are now trying to follow 551 00:35:16,479 --> 00:35:17,771 the white man's path, 552 00:35:17,896 --> 00:35:19,771 who are following the lead of Black Hoof, 553 00:35:19,896 --> 00:35:22,271 who was a person who had fought against the Americans 554 00:35:22,354 --> 00:35:24,771 through the Revolution, up until the Treaty of Greenville, 555 00:35:24,896 --> 00:35:27,021 but now, as an older man, is saying, 556 00:35:27,146 --> 00:35:30,646 "We fought. We've tried that way, it's not working. 557 00:35:30,771 --> 00:35:33,021 We need to try this way." 558 00:35:33,146 --> 00:35:37,271 NARRATOR: In April 1806, eager to win more recruits 559 00:35:37,396 --> 00:35:40,396 from among the troubled tribes in Ohio and Indiana, 560 00:35:40,521 --> 00:35:42,521 Tenskwatawa issued a direct challenge 561 00:35:42,604 --> 00:35:45,896 to any leaders who opposed him, accusing them of witchcraft 562 00:35:45,980 --> 00:35:49,396 and of being in league with the U.S. government. 563 00:35:49,521 --> 00:35:51,146 WARREN: He essentially engaged 564 00:35:51,271 --> 00:35:53,771 in a series of high-profile confrontations 565 00:35:53,855 --> 00:35:56,146 with their leaders to the point where 566 00:35:56,229 --> 00:35:59,396 he enters into a Wyandotte village 567 00:35:59,521 --> 00:36:04,521 and engages in a ritualized killing of a Wyandotte leader. 568 00:36:04,646 --> 00:36:07,896 He essentially accused him, and others like him, 569 00:36:07,980 --> 00:36:13,021 of being a witch, of attempting to undermine them, 570 00:36:13,146 --> 00:36:16,771 by acting as a kind of wedge for Americans 571 00:36:16,896 --> 00:36:20,521 to enter their communities and harm their people. 572 00:36:20,646 --> 00:36:24,646 And so people begin to see him as an iconoclast, of sorts, 573 00:36:24,730 --> 00:36:27,646 who's willing to take on government chiefs 574 00:36:27,730 --> 00:36:30,146 who are in the pay of the United States. 575 00:36:30,229 --> 00:36:34,104 And his message spreads like wildfire as a result. 576 00:36:39,229 --> 00:36:41,896 NARRATOR: In late April, as a wave of fear and unease 577 00:36:41,980 --> 00:36:44,521 rippled through white communities in southern Indiana, 578 00:36:44,604 --> 00:36:47,271 the territorial governor, William Henry Harrison, 579 00:36:47,396 --> 00:36:49,396 fired off a letter to the Delawares 580 00:36:49,479 --> 00:36:51,771 denouncing the Shawnee Prophet as an impostor 581 00:36:51,896 --> 00:36:57,646 and urging them to put his supposed powers to the test. 582 00:36:57,730 --> 00:36:59,271 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON: My children, 583 00:36:59,396 --> 00:37:02,771 who is this pretended prophet who dares to speak in the name 584 00:37:02,896 --> 00:37:05,521 of the great Creator? 585 00:37:05,604 --> 00:37:06,896 Examine him. 586 00:37:08,896 --> 00:37:10,646 Command of him some proof at least 587 00:37:10,730 --> 00:37:15,271 of his being a messenger of the deity. 588 00:37:15,396 --> 00:37:18,021 If he is really a prophet, 589 00:37:18,146 --> 00:37:21,396 ask him to cause the sun to stand still, 590 00:37:21,479 --> 00:37:24,521 or the moon to alter its courses, 591 00:37:24,646 --> 00:37:26,771 the river to cease to flow 592 00:37:26,855 --> 00:37:31,271 or the dead to rise from their graves. 593 00:37:31,396 --> 00:37:33,021 If he does these things, 594 00:37:33,146 --> 00:37:36,271 you may believe he is sent from God. 595 00:37:36,396 --> 00:37:41,271 Otherwise, drive him from your town 596 00:37:41,396 --> 00:37:45,396 and let peace and harmony prevail amongst you. 597 00:37:50,521 --> 00:37:52,146 EDMUNDS: And in June 1806, 598 00:37:52,229 --> 00:37:55,271 the Shawnee Prophet predicts an eclipse of the sun, 599 00:37:55,354 --> 00:37:58,021 called a "Black Sun" by the Shawnees, 600 00:37:58,104 --> 00:38:04,271 which is a sign of great things to come, a sign of great change. 601 00:38:04,354 --> 00:38:07,271 And, at first, many Shawnees, many other Indians, said, 602 00:38:07,396 --> 00:38:09,771 "Oh, this time I don't really think he's able to do it." 603 00:38:09,896 --> 00:38:16,730 (speaking Shawnee) 604 00:38:29,104 --> 00:38:30,771 TENSKWATAWA: Did I not speak the truth? 605 00:38:30,855 --> 00:38:32,896 See now, the sun is dark! 606 00:38:33,021 --> 00:38:34,730 (whoops) 607 00:38:41,104 --> 00:38:43,521 EDMUNDS: And the eclipse was so complete 608 00:38:43,646 --> 00:38:46,146 that the farm animals, for example, went into the sheds, 609 00:38:46,229 --> 00:38:49,146 the birds roosted, et cetera. 610 00:38:49,271 --> 00:38:55,521 And the Prophet's stock after this just rose like a skyrocket. 611 00:38:55,646 --> 00:38:58,271 William Henry Harrison could not have done anything 612 00:38:58,396 --> 00:39:01,021 that helps the Prophet 613 00:39:01,146 --> 00:39:03,771 and propels the Prophet and Tecumseh 614 00:39:03,855 --> 00:39:06,646 to a position of prominence more than issuing this challenge. 615 00:39:09,521 --> 00:39:11,146 NARRATOR: As news of the miracle spread, 616 00:39:11,229 --> 00:39:13,646 the trickle of pilgrims coming into Greenville 617 00:39:13,771 --> 00:39:16,146 swelled to a flood. 618 00:39:16,229 --> 00:39:19,271 By July, Ojibwa villages on the shores of Lake Superior 619 00:39:19,354 --> 00:39:21,021 stood empty and deserted. 620 00:39:21,146 --> 00:39:24,396 To the south, Potawatomis left corn crops 621 00:39:24,479 --> 00:39:27,646 standing in the fields and came to hear the Shawnee holy man 622 00:39:27,771 --> 00:39:30,021 whose words now, with each passing month, 623 00:39:30,146 --> 00:39:33,021 seemed to grow in stridency and power. 624 00:39:33,146 --> 00:39:36,521 My children, 625 00:39:36,646 --> 00:39:40,021 the Great Spirit bids me say to you thus: 626 00:39:40,104 --> 00:39:43,771 have very little to do with the Americans. 627 00:39:43,855 --> 00:39:47,146 They are unjust; 628 00:39:47,229 --> 00:39:50,354 they have taken away your lands, which were not made for them. 629 00:39:52,730 --> 00:39:56,271 The whites I have placed on the other side of the Great Water, 630 00:39:56,396 --> 00:39:58,521 to be another people, separate from you. 631 00:39:58,646 --> 00:40:02,146 In time, I will overturn the land 632 00:40:02,271 --> 00:40:05,771 so that all the white people will be covered 633 00:40:05,896 --> 00:40:09,396 and you alone shall inhabit the land. 634 00:40:12,730 --> 00:40:14,896 WARREN: And the U.S. government panics. 635 00:40:15,021 --> 00:40:19,896 And the fear really proliferates. 636 00:40:20,021 --> 00:40:23,771 Because by 1807, certainly, 637 00:40:23,855 --> 00:40:30,521 I think most Americans just assumed an orderly process 638 00:40:30,604 --> 00:40:32,271 of dispossession and conquest 639 00:40:32,396 --> 00:40:36,146 in which Native Americans would gradually recede 640 00:40:36,271 --> 00:40:40,396 from the picture, or assimilate into American society. 641 00:40:40,521 --> 00:40:43,521 And when Tenskwatawa has his vision, 642 00:40:43,646 --> 00:40:47,271 all of a sudden ten years of confidence erodes 643 00:40:47,396 --> 00:40:52,146 as Native people reconsider and attempt to reorganize themselves 644 00:40:52,229 --> 00:40:56,521 in an effective way against Jefferson's vision of land loss 645 00:40:56,646 --> 00:40:58,896 and dispossession. 646 00:41:02,855 --> 00:41:06,271 NARRATOR: Now events began to accelerate. 647 00:41:06,396 --> 00:41:10,146 In the spring of 1807, the Indian agent at Fort Wayne, 648 00:41:10,271 --> 00:41:12,396 William Wells, alarmed by the upturn in Indians 649 00:41:12,521 --> 00:41:14,271 passing through his outpost, 650 00:41:14,396 --> 00:41:16,521 accused the Prophet of keeping settlers 651 00:41:16,646 --> 00:41:18,771 "in a continual state of uneaseness," he said, 652 00:41:18,896 --> 00:41:21,646 and demanded he leave Greenville. 653 00:41:21,730 --> 00:41:25,396 That June, convinced that English agents operating 654 00:41:25,479 --> 00:41:28,146 out of Canada were egging the Indians on to war, 655 00:41:28,271 --> 00:41:30,396 William Henry Harrison fired off a letter 656 00:41:30,521 --> 00:41:32,646 to the Secretary of War. 657 00:41:32,771 --> 00:41:34,021 "I really fear," he wrote, 658 00:41:34,146 --> 00:41:36,396 "that this said Prophet is an engine set to work 659 00:41:36,521 --> 00:41:39,021 by the British for some bad purpose." 660 00:41:40,730 --> 00:41:43,896 In the fall of 1808, as the war of words grew louder, 661 00:41:43,980 --> 00:41:46,896 the two brothers decided to move their center of operations 662 00:41:47,021 --> 00:41:50,146 to a new site, 150 miles west, 663 00:41:50,229 --> 00:41:52,021 strategically located near the junction 664 00:41:52,146 --> 00:41:54,646 of the Wabash and Tippecanoe Rivers, 665 00:41:54,730 --> 00:41:56,521 deep in Indiana Territory, 666 00:41:56,646 --> 00:41:59,396 far away from prying white eyes, they hoped, 667 00:41:59,521 --> 00:42:02,146 and closer to the western tribes that had been most receptive 668 00:42:02,229 --> 00:42:05,271 to the Prophet's message to begin with. 669 00:42:06,771 --> 00:42:08,646 The new village, called Prophetstown, 670 00:42:08,730 --> 00:42:09,896 would rise to become 671 00:42:09,980 --> 00:42:11,771 one of the greatest centers of Indian resistance 672 00:42:11,896 --> 00:42:14,896 on the North American continent. 673 00:42:15,021 --> 00:42:16,646 It would also become a major obstacle 674 00:42:16,771 --> 00:42:20,271 to the dreams of statehood nurtured by William Henry Harrison, 675 00:42:20,354 --> 00:42:22,021 who in 1809 redoubled his efforts 676 00:42:22,146 --> 00:42:24,396 to drive the Indians from Indiana, 677 00:42:24,521 --> 00:42:27,146 bribing local chiefs into signing away lands 678 00:42:27,271 --> 00:42:29,146 over which they had no authority 679 00:42:29,271 --> 00:42:31,646 and pressing one land cession after another 680 00:42:31,771 --> 00:42:33,646 through the territorial legislature, 681 00:42:33,771 --> 00:42:36,021 culminating in the notorious Treaty of Fort Wayne 682 00:42:36,146 --> 00:42:38,354 in the autumn of 1809. 683 00:42:41,104 --> 00:42:45,646 SUGDEN: The Treaty of Fort Wayne really changes everything, 684 00:42:45,771 --> 00:42:49,896 and the politics comes to the fore. 685 00:42:49,980 --> 00:42:53,021 Here's three million acres of Indian land 686 00:42:53,104 --> 00:42:54,271 suddenly snatched away, 687 00:42:54,396 --> 00:42:58,771 and white settlements are moving closer than ever before 688 00:42:58,855 --> 00:43:00,896 to Prophetstown. 689 00:43:01,021 --> 00:43:05,521 And suddenly there is a need for very urgent political action. 690 00:43:09,896 --> 00:43:12,896 NARRATOR: For Tecumseh, it was the decisive moment. 691 00:43:13,021 --> 00:43:15,896 Convinced now that only the most radical and concerted efforts 692 00:43:16,021 --> 00:43:17,521 could save the Indian land base, 693 00:43:17,646 --> 00:43:19,646 he stepped out from behind his brother's shadow 694 00:43:19,771 --> 00:43:23,271 once and for all and sprang into action. 695 00:43:23,396 --> 00:43:25,146 In the months and years to come, 696 00:43:25,271 --> 00:43:29,021 rallying warriors from half a continent to his cause, 697 00:43:29,146 --> 00:43:31,896 he would do everything he could to push back and redraw 698 00:43:32,021 --> 00:43:35,146 the still fluid boundaries of the new United States, 699 00:43:35,271 --> 00:43:37,146 and to create a permanent Indian homeland 700 00:43:37,271 --> 00:43:39,396 in the very heart of the country, 701 00:43:39,521 --> 00:43:42,146 bounded by the Ohio River to the south and east, 702 00:43:42,271 --> 00:43:44,396 by the Great Lakes to the north 703 00:43:44,521 --> 00:43:46,771 and by the Mississippi River to the west-- 704 00:43:46,896 --> 00:43:49,021 a United Indian States of America 705 00:43:49,146 --> 00:43:51,146 within the United States. 706 00:43:54,271 --> 00:43:58,771 CALLOWAY: Tecumseh's vision is to establish, I think, 707 00:43:58,896 --> 00:44:01,021 what I would call cultural and physical space 708 00:44:01,146 --> 00:44:03,396 for Indian people. 709 00:44:03,521 --> 00:44:07,396 He understands that for Indian culture to survive 710 00:44:07,521 --> 00:44:10,021 and for Indian independence to survive, 711 00:44:10,146 --> 00:44:12,771 there needs to be a land base, 712 00:44:12,896 --> 00:44:16,396 and that land base can only be preserved and protected 713 00:44:16,521 --> 00:44:19,521 by a united tribal resistance. 714 00:44:19,604 --> 00:44:24,271 This is no longer a fight that can be waged 715 00:44:24,396 --> 00:44:29,646 by just some Shawnees, just some Delawares, just some Wyandottes. 716 00:44:29,730 --> 00:44:34,396 He's appealing to a larger, pan-Indian future, 717 00:44:34,479 --> 00:44:40,021 in which the future of all Indian peoples will be affected 718 00:44:40,146 --> 00:44:45,771 by the stand that Indian peoples take now. 719 00:44:45,855 --> 00:44:49,646 They have driven us from the sea to the lakes, 720 00:44:49,771 --> 00:44:53,646 and we can go no farther. 721 00:44:53,771 --> 00:44:55,271 They have taken upon themselves to say, 722 00:44:55,396 --> 00:44:57,646 "This tract of land belongs to the Miamis, 723 00:44:57,771 --> 00:45:04,021 and this to the Delaware" and so on. 724 00:45:04,146 --> 00:45:07,396 Our father tells us that we have no business on the Wabash, 725 00:45:07,521 --> 00:45:12,146 that the land belongs to other tribes. 726 00:45:12,271 --> 00:45:15,521 But the Great Spirit intended it to be the common property 727 00:45:15,604 --> 00:45:22,396 of all the tribes, nor can it be sold without the consent of all. 728 00:45:25,354 --> 00:45:29,021 NARRATOR: In 1809, Tecumseh set out with an entourage of warriors 729 00:45:29,146 --> 00:45:32,146 and interpreters on the first of a series of epic tours-- 730 00:45:32,229 --> 00:45:36,021 east to the Shawnees and Wyandottes in Ohio; 731 00:45:36,146 --> 00:45:40,146 west to the Sacs and Foxes and Hochunks in Illinois; 732 00:45:40,229 --> 00:45:43,521 south to the Creeks and Choctaws in Alabama and Georgia; 733 00:45:43,604 --> 00:45:45,396 and north, as far away as Canada, 734 00:45:45,521 --> 00:45:48,646 to the home of the Senecas and the Iroquois and the British-- 735 00:45:48,730 --> 00:45:50,646 determined to swell the ranks 736 00:45:50,771 --> 00:45:54,146 of the burgeoning Indian confederacy any way he could 737 00:45:54,229 --> 00:45:56,646 and to find supplies and reinforcements 738 00:45:56,771 --> 00:46:00,396 for the armed conflict he now knew was inevitable. 739 00:46:00,521 --> 00:46:04,146 SUGDEN: He doesn't pluck this confederacy out of nowhere. 740 00:46:04,229 --> 00:46:07,646 He just tries to revive the confederacy he had known 741 00:46:07,771 --> 00:46:09,021 as a young man. 742 00:46:09,146 --> 00:46:12,146 He even uses the same terminology, 743 00:46:12,229 --> 00:46:15,521 the idea that the land is held in common by the Indians. 744 00:46:15,646 --> 00:46:20,271 No one tribe can cede it without the permission of the others. 745 00:46:20,354 --> 00:46:24,146 And, therefore, it's in all our interest to defend it. 746 00:46:26,104 --> 00:46:29,021 Now, this was a job that was much more difficult 747 00:46:29,146 --> 00:46:32,271 than the job of the American founding fathers, 748 00:46:32,396 --> 00:46:35,021 who at least had some tradition of common origin 749 00:46:35,146 --> 00:46:39,646 and a similar language and similar thought patterns and mindsets. 750 00:46:39,771 --> 00:46:42,771 On top of those problems, though, 751 00:46:42,855 --> 00:46:46,396 Tecumseh was facing the fact that these weren't states, 752 00:46:46,521 --> 00:46:49,521 they were fragmented villages. 753 00:46:49,646 --> 00:46:52,396 So you couldn't just convince a few chiefs 754 00:46:52,479 --> 00:46:56,146 and hope that was going to do the business for you. 755 00:46:56,271 --> 00:46:59,896 Those chiefs might have almost no or little authority 756 00:47:00,021 --> 00:47:03,646 within their own communities. 757 00:47:03,771 --> 00:47:06,396 But this lack of authority in Indian communities 758 00:47:06,479 --> 00:47:08,271 both played against him and for him, 759 00:47:08,396 --> 00:47:10,771 because even if the chiefs were in opposition, 760 00:47:10,855 --> 00:47:13,146 he could pull the warriors from underneath them 761 00:47:13,271 --> 00:47:15,146 by appealing to them. 762 00:47:15,271 --> 00:47:19,021 And this is really one of his strategies. 763 00:47:19,104 --> 00:47:21,771 (speaking Shawnee) 764 00:47:21,855 --> 00:47:24,146 (whooping) 765 00:47:24,271 --> 00:47:26,604 Listen, my people. 766 00:47:28,521 --> 00:47:31,021 The past speaks for itself. 767 00:47:31,146 --> 00:47:34,271 (whooping) 768 00:47:34,396 --> 00:47:38,521 Where today are the Pequots? 769 00:47:38,604 --> 00:47:42,896 Where the Narragansett, the Powhatan, Pokanoket 770 00:47:42,980 --> 00:47:45,771 and many other once powerful tribes of our race? 771 00:47:45,896 --> 00:47:49,521 (clamoring) 772 00:47:49,646 --> 00:47:52,771 Look abroad over this once beautiful country 773 00:47:52,896 --> 00:47:55,646 and what do you see? 774 00:47:55,771 --> 00:47:58,771 Nothing but the ravages of the pale-face destroyers. 775 00:47:58,855 --> 00:48:00,771 (whooping) 776 00:48:00,896 --> 00:48:03,521 And so it will be with you, 777 00:48:03,646 --> 00:48:07,521 Creek, Chickasaws and Choctaws. 778 00:48:07,646 --> 00:48:12,021 The annihilation of our race is at hand 779 00:48:12,104 --> 00:48:15,646 unless we are united in one common cause 780 00:48:15,771 --> 00:48:18,021 against the common foe. 781 00:48:18,146 --> 00:48:19,771 (shouting in agreement) 782 00:48:19,896 --> 00:48:22,980 (whooping) 783 00:48:28,980 --> 00:48:32,771 FIXICO: I mean, so many different groups come to this call for warriors. 784 00:48:32,896 --> 00:48:35,396 When you think about 20 different tribes-- 785 00:48:35,521 --> 00:48:37,896 many in which the languages are so different 786 00:48:38,021 --> 00:48:39,646 and the politics are so different. 787 00:48:39,771 --> 00:48:43,271 He's dissolved tribal barriers, tribal differences, 788 00:48:43,396 --> 00:48:44,521 cultural differences, as well, 789 00:48:44,646 --> 00:48:46,771 and he's got them to believe in one mind. 790 00:48:46,896 --> 00:48:52,521 For one person to get so many people to come of the same mind, 791 00:48:52,646 --> 00:48:54,271 yes, indeed, it's propaganda; 792 00:48:54,396 --> 00:48:58,521 yes, indeed, it's campaigning; yes, indeed, it's diplomacy-- 793 00:48:58,604 --> 00:49:01,771 being an ambassador, a military strategist. 794 00:49:01,896 --> 00:49:06,521 And so, in my mind, he's succeeded with this idea. 795 00:49:12,646 --> 00:49:15,396 NARRATOR: By 1810, the impact of Tecumseh's diplomacy 796 00:49:15,521 --> 00:49:18,896 could be felt up and down the Wabash. 797 00:49:18,980 --> 00:49:22,521 By May, nearly a thousand people had streamed into Prophetstown, 798 00:49:22,646 --> 00:49:25,146 and all spring and summer the numbers continued to build. 799 00:49:25,271 --> 00:49:29,396 Fearing imminent bloodshed, William Henry Harrison called 800 00:49:29,521 --> 00:49:31,146 for a contingent of federal troops 801 00:49:31,271 --> 00:49:33,896 to reinforce the territorial capital at Vincennes, 802 00:49:34,021 --> 00:49:37,271 then sent a messenger to Prophetstown itself 803 00:49:37,354 --> 00:49:40,646 urging the Prophet to come to Vincennes to air grievances 804 00:49:40,771 --> 00:49:42,229 about the Treaty of Fort Wayne. 805 00:49:43,896 --> 00:49:47,021 In the end, it was Tecumseh himself who replied, 806 00:49:47,146 --> 00:49:49,646 telling the messenger that he personally would come to meet 807 00:49:49,771 --> 00:49:52,521 with Harrison to discuss Indian outrage 808 00:49:52,604 --> 00:49:54,021 over the newly ceded lands. 809 00:49:56,271 --> 00:50:00,396 On August 12, 1810, a party of 75 warriors 810 00:50:00,479 --> 00:50:02,896 with Tecumseh in command arrived at Harrison's headquarters 811 00:50:03,021 --> 00:50:04,730 for the historic confrontation. 812 00:50:09,271 --> 00:50:12,271 SUGDEN: There were some canonical stories about Tecumseh, 813 00:50:12,396 --> 00:50:14,771 which, even if you knew nothing else, you could say, 814 00:50:14,896 --> 00:50:18,271 "This is someone you have to reckon with." 815 00:50:18,396 --> 00:50:21,646 One of them is that confrontation with Harrison 816 00:50:21,730 --> 00:50:22,771 in 1810... 817 00:50:24,396 --> 00:50:26,646 That magnificent, really, confrontation 818 00:50:26,730 --> 00:50:29,896 where he knew a conflict was coming, and so did Harrison. 819 00:50:29,980 --> 00:50:33,146 And here you have two representatives 820 00:50:33,271 --> 00:50:38,896 of entirely different philosophies and points of view. 821 00:50:39,021 --> 00:50:42,146 And neither individual was afraid of the other. 822 00:50:42,229 --> 00:50:46,771 Harrison had no need to be; the resources were all behind him. 823 00:50:46,896 --> 00:50:48,271 But Tecumseh... 824 00:50:48,396 --> 00:50:53,271 there was no sense that being in a weak position should mitigate 825 00:50:53,354 --> 00:50:58,229 or reduce his point of view or the worthiness of his cause. 826 00:51:04,479 --> 00:51:06,771 How, my brother, can you blame me for placing little confidence 827 00:51:06,855 --> 00:51:09,646 in the promises of our fathers, the Americans? 828 00:51:09,730 --> 00:51:13,646 You have endeavored to make distinctions. 829 00:51:13,771 --> 00:51:15,271 You have taken tribes aside. 830 00:51:15,354 --> 00:51:19,396 You wish to prevent the Indians from uniting, 831 00:51:19,521 --> 00:51:21,021 and from considering their land 832 00:51:21,146 --> 00:51:22,896 the common property of the whole. 833 00:51:23,021 --> 00:51:26,896 I do not see how we can remain at peace with you 834 00:51:27,021 --> 00:51:29,771 if you continue to do so. 835 00:51:29,896 --> 00:51:32,521 Brother, this land that was sold, 836 00:51:32,646 --> 00:51:36,646 and the goods that were given for it, 837 00:51:36,771 --> 00:51:40,521 they were done only by the few. 838 00:51:40,604 --> 00:51:41,896 If you continue to purchase land 839 00:51:42,021 --> 00:51:43,396 from those who have no right to do so, 840 00:51:43,521 --> 00:51:46,855 I do not know what will be the consequence. 841 00:51:52,104 --> 00:51:55,771 I now wish you to listen to me, brother. 842 00:51:55,896 --> 00:51:58,146 I tell you so because I am authorized 843 00:51:58,271 --> 00:51:59,646 by all the tribes to do so. 844 00:51:59,771 --> 00:52:01,021 I am at the head of them all. 845 00:52:03,229 --> 00:52:05,396 I am a warrior, and all the warriors will meet 846 00:52:05,521 --> 00:52:08,271 in two or three moons from this. 847 00:52:08,396 --> 00:52:09,771 Then I will call those chiefs 848 00:52:09,896 --> 00:52:11,646 who have sold the land to you 849 00:52:11,771 --> 00:52:15,146 and shall know what to do with them. 850 00:52:15,271 --> 00:52:18,396 For, brother, we want to save this land; 851 00:52:18,479 --> 00:52:20,771 we do not wish you to take it. 852 00:52:20,896 --> 00:52:24,021 And if you take it, you shall be the cause 853 00:52:24,146 --> 00:52:25,646 of the trouble between us. 854 00:52:30,646 --> 00:52:33,271 The United States has not treated the Indians 855 00:52:33,396 --> 00:52:37,021 dishonestly nor unjustly. 856 00:52:37,104 --> 00:52:40,271 Indians are not one nation, nor do they own the land in common. 857 00:52:40,396 --> 00:52:43,896 Has not the Great Spirit given them separate tongues? 858 00:52:44,021 --> 00:52:45,855 (speaking Shawnee) 859 00:53:02,021 --> 00:53:03,730 This council is over. 860 00:53:17,021 --> 00:53:21,146 SUGDEN: He stood up in a very remarkable and frank way 861 00:53:21,271 --> 00:53:26,521 and more or less admitted to Harrison that war would come. 862 00:53:26,646 --> 00:53:28,396 I think he said at one point, 863 00:53:28,521 --> 00:53:32,021 "You are pushing us into a conflict. 864 00:53:32,104 --> 00:53:34,396 "We have no alternative. 865 00:53:34,521 --> 00:53:38,896 This is going to happen if you continue with this policy." 866 00:53:39,021 --> 00:53:42,271 And, of course, Harrison certainly was going to continue that policy. 867 00:53:42,396 --> 00:53:44,771 But both men gave no ground. 868 00:53:48,896 --> 00:53:51,896 NARRATOR: For nearly a week the talks continued, 869 00:53:52,021 --> 00:53:54,396 Tecumseh insisting the lands be returned; 870 00:53:54,479 --> 00:53:56,896 Harrison insisting they had been fairly acquired, 871 00:53:56,980 --> 00:53:59,896 refusing to return them. 872 00:54:00,021 --> 00:54:02,146 Before the deadlocked meetings adjourned, 873 00:54:02,271 --> 00:54:04,021 Harrison promised to pass Tecumseh's demands 874 00:54:04,146 --> 00:54:07,021 on to the president in Washington, adding, however, 875 00:54:07,146 --> 00:54:11,271 that he very much doubted the request would be granted. 876 00:54:11,396 --> 00:54:14,021 No one present ever forgot Tecumseh's reply. 877 00:54:17,271 --> 00:54:21,521 As the Great Chief in Washington is to determine the matter, 878 00:54:21,646 --> 00:54:24,896 I hope the Great Spirit will put some sense into his head 879 00:54:25,021 --> 00:54:30,521 to induce him to direct you to give up this land. 880 00:54:30,646 --> 00:54:33,646 It is true, he is so far off. 881 00:54:33,730 --> 00:54:37,146 He will not be injured by the war. 882 00:54:37,229 --> 00:54:45,396 He may still sit in his town and drink his wine 883 00:54:45,521 --> 00:54:47,896 whilst you and I will have to fight it out. 884 00:55:10,730 --> 00:55:12,771 The implicit obedience and respect 885 00:55:12,896 --> 00:55:18,396 which the followers of Tecumseh pay to him is really astonishing 886 00:55:18,521 --> 00:55:21,146 and more than any other circumstance bespeaks him 887 00:55:21,229 --> 00:55:24,521 one of those uncommon geniuses, 888 00:55:24,646 --> 00:55:28,521 who spring up occasionally to produce revolutions 889 00:55:28,604 --> 00:55:33,396 and overturn the established order of things. 890 00:55:33,521 --> 00:55:38,021 If it were not for the vicinity of the United States, 891 00:55:38,146 --> 00:55:40,021 he would perhaps be the founder of an empire 892 00:55:40,104 --> 00:55:43,896 that would rival in glory that of Mexico or Peru. 893 00:55:48,896 --> 00:55:51,021 SUGDEN: Now, Tecumseh did a remarkable thing. 894 00:55:51,146 --> 00:55:53,396 He said a remarkable thing in 1810, 895 00:55:53,521 --> 00:55:55,896 when he confronted Harrison at Vincennes. 896 00:55:56,021 --> 00:55:57,396 He said something I don't think 897 00:55:57,521 --> 00:56:00,146 any Native American had said before, 898 00:56:00,271 --> 00:56:03,146 and I don't think many had said afterwards. 899 00:56:03,271 --> 00:56:06,896 He stood up, defended Indian land, 900 00:56:07,021 --> 00:56:13,271 and said he represented every Indian on the continent. 901 00:56:13,396 --> 00:56:16,396 Now, what a preposterous assertion, 902 00:56:16,521 --> 00:56:20,021 even for someone whose life had been so far-flung as his. 903 00:56:20,104 --> 00:56:24,646 But to make such a claim at that time, 904 00:56:24,730 --> 00:56:27,646 it was an absolutely preposterous thing to say. 905 00:56:27,730 --> 00:56:29,771 Yet what he was saying was 906 00:56:29,855 --> 00:56:33,521 that he understood that Native American peoples 907 00:56:33,604 --> 00:56:37,396 were in a particular historical predicament, 908 00:56:37,521 --> 00:56:41,646 and he was articulating that predicament 909 00:56:41,771 --> 00:56:44,396 and he was doing it for all of them. 910 00:56:50,855 --> 00:56:52,396 EDMUNDS: Well, I think by 1811, 911 00:56:52,521 --> 00:56:53,896 Tecumseh can see that war is imminent 912 00:56:54,021 --> 00:56:55,896 between the Americans and the British, 913 00:56:56,021 --> 00:56:58,646 and I think he hopes to use this war to help defend 914 00:56:58,771 --> 00:57:02,896 Native American homelands in the Old Northwest. 915 00:57:03,021 --> 00:57:04,646 The problem for Tecumseh is always going to be 916 00:57:04,771 --> 00:57:06,146 one of logistics. 917 00:57:06,271 --> 00:57:08,521 It's one of bringing in large numbers of warriors 918 00:57:08,646 --> 00:57:10,646 and supplying them, and feeding them, 919 00:57:10,771 --> 00:57:12,980 and providing them with adequate arms and ammunition. 920 00:57:14,980 --> 00:57:17,146 WARREN: My sense of Tecumseh is that 921 00:57:17,271 --> 00:57:21,771 he was keenly aware of moments of opportunity, 922 00:57:21,855 --> 00:57:25,021 moments to strike, moments to act, 923 00:57:25,146 --> 00:57:28,521 and 1811 was not one of those moments. 924 00:57:32,730 --> 00:57:36,146 NARRATOR: The dog days of summer 1811 were just reaching their peak 925 00:57:36,271 --> 00:57:39,271 when Tecumseh embarked on one last grueling tour, 926 00:57:39,396 --> 00:57:42,646 heading south this time to what the Shawnees called the Mid-Day, 927 00:57:42,730 --> 00:57:45,646 determined to bring the Chickasawas, Choctaws and Creeks 928 00:57:45,771 --> 00:57:48,521 into the confederacy, and to shore up British support 929 00:57:48,646 --> 00:57:49,771 for the movement. 930 00:57:52,771 --> 00:57:54,271 Before leaving Prophetstown, 931 00:57:54,396 --> 00:57:56,021 Tecumseh urged his younger brother 932 00:57:56,146 --> 00:57:58,396 to do everything he could to keep from being drawn 933 00:57:58,521 --> 00:58:00,646 into a fight with Harrison prematurely, 934 00:58:00,771 --> 00:58:02,771 then made one last stop at Vincennes 935 00:58:02,855 --> 00:58:05,646 to see Harrison himself before continuing south, 936 00:58:05,730 --> 00:58:08,646 hoping to convince him not to initiate hostilities. 937 00:58:10,271 --> 00:58:14,021 WARREN: I think it was crucial to hold off for several reasons. 938 00:58:14,146 --> 00:58:15,271 The first is that 939 00:58:15,396 --> 00:58:19,146 Tecumseh was the only person equipped to lead; 940 00:58:19,229 --> 00:58:22,646 the second being that British support was crucial 941 00:58:22,730 --> 00:58:25,646 and, whatever they did, it had to be coordinated 942 00:58:25,771 --> 00:58:27,396 with the British; 943 00:58:27,521 --> 00:58:29,521 and third, I think Tecumseh was really confident 944 00:58:29,646 --> 00:58:31,896 that his Southeastern tour would result 945 00:58:31,980 --> 00:58:33,771 in a great many adherents. 946 00:58:38,229 --> 00:58:42,521 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON: August 6, 1811. 947 00:58:42,646 --> 00:58:45,396 The day before he set out, he paid me a visit 948 00:58:45,521 --> 00:58:47,771 and labored hard to convince me 949 00:58:47,855 --> 00:58:50,646 that he had no other intention by his journey to the south 950 00:58:50,771 --> 00:58:52,896 than to prevail on all the tribes to unite 951 00:58:53,021 --> 00:58:54,604 in the bonds of peace. 952 00:58:57,479 --> 00:58:58,646 August 7. 953 00:59:01,021 --> 00:59:02,896 He is now upon the last round 954 00:59:03,021 --> 00:59:06,521 to put a finishing stroke to his work. 955 00:59:06,646 --> 00:59:11,146 I hope, however, before his return 956 00:59:11,229 --> 00:59:16,146 that that part of the fabric which he considered complete 957 00:59:16,229 --> 00:59:23,604 will be demolished, and even its foundations rooted up. 958 00:59:29,646 --> 00:59:30,771 NARRATOR: In late August, 959 00:59:30,896 --> 00:59:33,021 writing that Tecumseh's "great talents" alone 960 00:59:33,146 --> 00:59:34,271 were holding together 961 00:59:34,396 --> 00:59:36,396 the heterogeneous mass of warriors on the Wabash, 962 00:59:36,521 --> 00:59:39,271 Harrison received permission to march on Prophetstown, 963 00:59:39,396 --> 00:59:43,396 and one month later-- on September 26, 1811-- 964 00:59:43,521 --> 00:59:45,521 at the head of a force of nearly 1,000 men, 965 00:59:45,646 --> 00:59:51,146 headed north towards the Indian stronghold, 180 miles away. 966 00:59:51,229 --> 00:59:54,146 As reports came in to Prophetstown 967 00:59:54,271 --> 00:59:56,021 of Harrison's approaching army, 968 00:59:56,104 --> 00:59:58,896 hundreds of warriors converged on the Indian village 969 00:59:58,980 --> 01:00:01,271 to defend it. 970 01:00:01,354 --> 01:00:05,896 CALLOWAY: As Tenskwatawa watches the American army advance, 971 01:00:05,980 --> 01:00:10,021 he is faced with the question of what to do. 972 01:00:10,104 --> 01:00:11,521 Do you sit and wait, 973 01:00:11,646 --> 01:00:14,146 to see if the American intentions are peaceful, 974 01:00:14,271 --> 01:00:17,771 or should you strike against it? 975 01:00:17,896 --> 01:00:20,771 When Tenskwatawa hears of the American army advancing, 976 01:00:20,896 --> 01:00:23,146 he interprets this as an act of aggression. 977 01:00:25,479 --> 01:00:28,021 NARRATOR: Around 2:00 on the afternoon of November 6, 978 01:00:28,146 --> 01:00:31,021 Harrison's thousand-man force clambered up a steep ravine 979 01:00:31,104 --> 01:00:32,646 on the eastern side of a narrow stream 980 01:00:32,730 --> 01:00:34,271 called Burnett's Creek 981 01:00:34,396 --> 01:00:36,646 and went into camp on a narrow bench of high ground 982 01:00:36,771 --> 01:00:38,604 planted with high oak trees. 983 01:00:40,021 --> 01:00:42,771 One mile to the east lay Prophetstown, stretching south 984 01:00:42,855 --> 01:00:45,896 along the Wabash from the mouth of the Tippecanoe. 985 01:00:46,021 --> 01:00:48,271 As the light began to fail, 986 01:00:48,354 --> 01:00:51,771 two officers and an interpreter rode out under a white flag 987 01:00:51,896 --> 01:00:55,771 to convey Harrison's orders that the Indian camp disperse. 988 01:00:57,479 --> 01:00:58,521 WARREN: Tippecanoe. 989 01:00:58,646 --> 01:01:02,396 There's a crucial moment on November 6 990 01:01:02,521 --> 01:01:05,146 when Harrison arrives. 991 01:01:05,271 --> 01:01:08,521 He arrives with more than a thousand men. 992 01:01:08,604 --> 01:01:12,396 And Harrison and Tenskwatawa agree to meet the next day 993 01:01:12,521 --> 01:01:16,146 to discuss how they might reach some kind of compromise. 994 01:01:16,229 --> 01:01:20,021 But on the night of November 6, 995 01:01:20,146 --> 01:01:25,771 Tenskwatawa is besieged by his Western Algonquian allies, 996 01:01:25,855 --> 01:01:28,021 and they tell him, "Look. 997 01:01:28,146 --> 01:01:30,771 "We have to fight, we have to surprise them. 998 01:01:30,896 --> 01:01:32,771 "They think we're going to have a discussion, 999 01:01:32,896 --> 01:01:36,146 but let's wage a preemptive strike." 1000 01:01:36,271 --> 01:01:37,646 To come all that way 1001 01:01:37,771 --> 01:01:41,521 and to do nothing but wait for Tecumseh 1002 01:01:41,646 --> 01:01:44,271 made little sense to them. 1003 01:01:47,646 --> 01:01:50,896 (speaking Shawnee) 1004 01:01:51,021 --> 01:01:53,271 (men whooping) 1005 01:01:53,354 --> 01:01:57,396 WARREN: And so Tenskwatawa goes against his brother's wishes for him. 1006 01:01:57,521 --> 01:01:59,146 You know, he caves to pressure. 1007 01:01:59,229 --> 01:02:04,271 And not only that, but he tells his allies that they'll be safe 1008 01:02:04,396 --> 01:02:10,771 from American bullets, that his power as a medicine man 1009 01:02:10,855 --> 01:02:13,980 is such that no one will be harmed. 1010 01:02:19,021 --> 01:02:21,521 NARRATOR: Sometime in the night, a long column of warriors 1011 01:02:21,646 --> 01:02:24,146 began to file silently out of the village, 1012 01:02:24,271 --> 01:02:25,771 heading in a long arc 1013 01:02:25,855 --> 01:02:28,021 for the northwest corner of the American encampment. 1014 01:02:31,896 --> 01:02:36,771 FIXICO: It was a very wet morning. 1015 01:02:36,896 --> 01:02:39,771 Sentries are posted and everything. 1016 01:02:39,855 --> 01:02:42,646 And, possibly, Winnebago warriors, 1017 01:02:42,771 --> 01:02:47,146 but certainly warriors, tried to penetrate the camp, 1018 01:02:47,271 --> 01:02:48,646 crawling into the camp. 1019 01:02:48,771 --> 01:02:50,646 And they even make it past the sentries. 1020 01:02:52,730 --> 01:02:54,146 NARRATOR: Around 4:00 in the morning, 1021 01:02:54,271 --> 01:02:56,271 a picket stationed a few yards out 1022 01:02:56,396 --> 01:02:58,021 beyond the left flank of the camp 1023 01:02:58,146 --> 01:03:00,354 thought he saw something moving in the trees. 1024 01:03:02,271 --> 01:03:04,146 Whipping his musket to his shoulder, 1025 01:03:04,229 --> 01:03:06,646 he fired blindly into the gloom, 1026 01:03:06,771 --> 01:03:08,771 mortally wounding a Kickapoo warrior 1027 01:03:08,896 --> 01:03:11,521 as he attempted to steal into the camp. 1028 01:03:13,146 --> 01:03:16,771 Harrison himself was in his tent when the first shot rang out, 1029 01:03:16,896 --> 01:03:19,521 followed by a series of bloodcurdling war cries 1030 01:03:19,646 --> 01:03:21,396 and a tremendous crash of muskets 1031 01:03:21,479 --> 01:03:25,271 as the war party rushed in. 1032 01:03:25,354 --> 01:03:28,146 The Battle of Tippecanoe had begun. 1033 01:03:29,896 --> 01:03:33,271 SUGDEN: It was a classic Indian attack. 1034 01:03:33,354 --> 01:03:36,021 If you don't have the numbers on your side, 1035 01:03:36,146 --> 01:03:37,896 you make a sudden attack 1036 01:03:38,021 --> 01:03:44,146 and try to overwhelm and demoralize the enemy quickly. 1037 01:03:44,271 --> 01:03:48,146 And it was carried through at Tippecanoe 1038 01:03:48,271 --> 01:03:51,021 with great determination, 1039 01:03:51,104 --> 01:03:53,271 considering how few warriors there were. 1040 01:03:53,396 --> 01:03:55,896 And they didn't have much ammunition. 1041 01:03:56,021 --> 01:03:59,646 The Indians were a very mobile force. 1042 01:03:59,730 --> 01:04:02,396 They were almost like water-- they gave way to things 1043 01:04:02,479 --> 01:04:05,021 and they strengthened around weak points 1044 01:04:05,146 --> 01:04:06,396 in a very flexible way. 1045 01:04:06,521 --> 01:04:10,271 They didn't have to wait for orders from chiefs. 1046 01:04:10,354 --> 01:04:14,396 They fought very much individually. 1047 01:04:14,521 --> 01:04:18,521 So if they perceived a force getting out of its depth, 1048 01:04:18,604 --> 01:04:22,271 moving forward and getting split up from the main force, 1049 01:04:22,354 --> 01:04:25,521 they could easily rally round and start surrounding it 1050 01:04:25,646 --> 01:04:28,396 and cutting it to pieces. 1051 01:04:28,479 --> 01:04:31,521 I mean, if there had been more Indians on the ground, 1052 01:04:31,646 --> 01:04:34,146 the Indians might have been capable 1053 01:04:34,271 --> 01:04:36,521 of inflicting great damage. 1054 01:04:39,604 --> 01:04:45,771 CALLOWAY: The Indian warriors attack Harrison's army in camp at dawn. 1055 01:04:45,896 --> 01:04:47,521 For a moment, it looks as if 1056 01:04:47,646 --> 01:04:52,021 the Indians have infiltrated the lines; there's confusion. 1057 01:04:52,104 --> 01:04:54,021 But as the light increases, 1058 01:04:54,146 --> 01:04:56,146 it becomes clear to the Americans 1059 01:04:56,271 --> 01:04:58,396 that the Indians lack the numbers, 1060 01:04:58,521 --> 01:05:02,521 that they lack the ammunition to carry this assault home. 1061 01:05:02,646 --> 01:05:06,021 And, eventually, the Indians are driven from the field. 1062 01:05:09,646 --> 01:05:12,771 In reality, the Americans suffered 1063 01:05:12,896 --> 01:05:16,896 probably more casualties than the Indians. 1064 01:05:17,021 --> 01:05:18,521 The American force was superior; 1065 01:05:18,646 --> 01:05:20,146 the American force was better armed; 1066 01:05:20,229 --> 01:05:23,396 the American force had more ammunition. 1067 01:05:23,521 --> 01:05:25,396 But I do think 1068 01:05:25,521 --> 01:05:30,396 that it represents a blow to the confederacy. 1069 01:05:34,521 --> 01:05:37,896 NARRATOR: On the night of November 8, two days after the battle, 1070 01:05:38,021 --> 01:05:40,271 Harrison's soldiers edged warily into Prophetstown 1071 01:05:40,396 --> 01:05:43,771 for the first time, only to find 1072 01:05:43,855 --> 01:05:45,646 that the confederated forces had dispersed 1073 01:05:45,730 --> 01:05:47,730 into the surrounding countryside. 1074 01:05:49,146 --> 01:05:51,396 Ordering his men to plunder the village-- 1075 01:05:51,521 --> 01:05:52,771 setting fire to the lodges 1076 01:05:52,855 --> 01:05:54,771 and destroying all the Indians' food supplies-- 1077 01:05:54,896 --> 01:05:58,896 Harrison headed back down the Wabash towards Vincennes, 1078 01:05:59,021 --> 01:06:02,604 declaring in dispatches his mission had been accomplished. 1079 01:06:06,604 --> 01:06:09,396 (horses neighing) 1080 01:06:13,604 --> 01:06:16,146 FIXICO: Following the defeat at Prophetstown, 1081 01:06:16,229 --> 01:06:19,271 one would think that all of this was over. 1082 01:06:19,396 --> 01:06:20,521 And it was not. 1083 01:06:20,604 --> 01:06:23,521 It was just the beginning, in fact. 1084 01:06:23,604 --> 01:06:26,521 It was an impossible task of the largest scale 1085 01:06:26,604 --> 01:06:28,521 for Tecumseh to rebuild his army, 1086 01:06:28,604 --> 01:06:33,271 and he did, making twice the efforts, twice the stamina. 1087 01:06:34,396 --> 01:06:36,646 CALLOWAY: When Tecumseh comes home, 1088 01:06:36,771 --> 01:06:40,021 he's reputed to have grabbed the Prophet by the hair 1089 01:06:40,146 --> 01:06:44,146 and shaken him-- and reprimanded him, scolded him-- 1090 01:06:44,271 --> 01:06:47,396 for this foolish action. 1091 01:06:49,354 --> 01:06:52,396 EDMUNDS: Tecumseh, we know, is very angry with his brother 1092 01:06:52,521 --> 01:06:53,771 after this battle. 1093 01:06:53,896 --> 01:06:56,771 And I think the Prophet spends the rest of his life 1094 01:06:56,855 --> 01:07:01,271 trying to get back into a position of prominence. 1095 01:07:03,396 --> 01:07:06,271 FIXICO: Tecumseh has a choice. 1096 01:07:06,396 --> 01:07:08,521 Do you discard the Prophet 1097 01:07:08,646 --> 01:07:14,521 or do you reunite with him in this kind of campaign effort? 1098 01:07:14,646 --> 01:07:17,646 And he realized that he has to embrace him again. 1099 01:07:17,771 --> 01:07:19,396 And he forgives his brother. 1100 01:07:19,479 --> 01:07:20,896 And so now we're in the next chapter 1101 01:07:21,021 --> 01:07:24,021 of rebuilding this huge army. 1102 01:07:24,146 --> 01:07:27,271 And this time-- make no mistake about it-- 1103 01:07:27,354 --> 01:07:29,521 Tecumseh is going to be there. 1104 01:07:31,271 --> 01:07:33,771 NARRATOR: Though Harrison had destroyed the Indian food supplies 1105 01:07:33,855 --> 01:07:35,896 and scattered the Indian warriors, 1106 01:07:35,980 --> 01:07:38,271 he had not destroyed the confederacy itself 1107 01:07:38,396 --> 01:07:40,271 and he had not destroyed Tecumseh 1108 01:07:40,354 --> 01:07:42,021 and, in the end, only succeeded 1109 01:07:42,104 --> 01:07:44,771 in emboldening the great Shawnee warrior, 1110 01:07:44,855 --> 01:07:48,146 who, on returning to the Wabash in January 1812, 1111 01:07:48,271 --> 01:07:49,521 immediately set out 1112 01:07:49,646 --> 01:07:52,021 to reassemble the scattered alliance, 1113 01:07:52,146 --> 01:07:55,271 convinced, despite all appearances to the contrary, 1114 01:07:55,354 --> 01:07:58,271 that the moment of opportunity for the Indian confederacy 1115 01:07:58,396 --> 01:08:01,271 was rapidly approaching. 1116 01:08:01,354 --> 01:08:05,396 WARREN: I think, in a way, Harrison creates a huge problem 1117 01:08:05,521 --> 01:08:08,646 for all Americans living in the Northwest Territories, 1118 01:08:08,771 --> 01:08:11,396 because he disperses 1119 01:08:11,479 --> 01:08:14,646 those who are antagonistic to the United States 1120 01:08:14,730 --> 01:08:18,438 everywhere across the Midwest. 1121 01:08:18,563 --> 01:08:21,062 They have not given up. 1122 01:08:21,187 --> 01:08:23,771 They're not putting their weapons down. 1123 01:08:25,813 --> 01:08:28,688 NARRATOR: All through the winter and spring of 1812, 1124 01:08:28,813 --> 01:08:30,438 as long-festering tensions 1125 01:08:30,563 --> 01:08:33,062 between the United States and Great Britain spiraled upward, 1126 01:08:33,146 --> 01:08:36,312 Tecumseh labored tirelessly to rebuild the confederacy 1127 01:08:36,438 --> 01:08:37,938 and to shore up British support 1128 01:08:38,021 --> 01:08:40,187 before a renewed offensive could be launched 1129 01:08:40,271 --> 01:08:41,813 against Prophetstown. 1130 01:08:41,896 --> 01:08:44,813 By May, more than 800 warriors 1131 01:08:44,938 --> 01:08:46,813 had streamed back into the village 1132 01:08:46,938 --> 01:08:48,312 while across the Northwest, 1133 01:08:48,438 --> 01:08:51,187 more than 4,000 warriors were on the move, 1134 01:08:51,312 --> 01:08:53,563 the largest Indian confederacy ever mustered 1135 01:08:53,688 --> 01:08:55,688 on the North American continent. 1136 01:08:55,813 --> 01:08:58,438 By the third week of June, 1137 01:08:58,563 --> 01:09:00,187 Tecumseh himself was on his way north 1138 01:09:00,312 --> 01:09:01,688 towards a British fort 1139 01:09:01,813 --> 01:09:03,438 on the Canadian side of the Detroit River, 1140 01:09:03,521 --> 01:09:06,438 hoping to secure supplies and ammunition 1141 01:09:06,563 --> 01:09:08,062 when a messenger arrived 1142 01:09:08,146 --> 01:09:11,938 bearing news he had long been waiting for. 1143 01:09:12,062 --> 01:09:14,312 Three days earlier, on June 18, 1144 01:09:14,396 --> 01:09:17,438 the United States had officially declared war on Britain 1145 01:09:17,563 --> 01:09:18,813 over the fate 1146 01:09:18,938 --> 01:09:21,938 of the long-contested Northwestern frontier. 1147 01:09:22,021 --> 01:09:24,938 The War of 1812 had begun, bringing with it 1148 01:09:25,062 --> 01:09:28,062 the last best hope of a permanent Indian homeland 1149 01:09:28,146 --> 01:09:32,062 east of the Mississippi. 1150 01:09:32,187 --> 01:09:34,688 And of course, the British were at a crisis point themselves; 1151 01:09:34,813 --> 01:09:37,688 they needed American Indian allies. 1152 01:09:37,813 --> 01:09:39,187 They were fighting a war 1153 01:09:39,312 --> 01:09:41,813 in which the odds were against them. 1154 01:09:41,938 --> 01:09:44,187 They wanted to defend the Canadian line, 1155 01:09:44,312 --> 01:09:46,187 and of course they needed manpower. 1156 01:09:46,271 --> 01:09:49,688 Only the Indians could fill that void for them. 1157 01:09:49,813 --> 01:09:53,688 So it was an inevitable alliance at that point. 1158 01:09:53,771 --> 01:09:57,438 Tecumseh needed them, and they needed him. 1159 01:09:57,563 --> 01:09:59,688 And certainly Tecumseh's war aims... 1160 01:09:59,813 --> 01:10:03,187 He was still-- incredibly, I have to say-- 1161 01:10:03,271 --> 01:10:06,813 in 1812, looking at some possible way 1162 01:10:06,896 --> 01:10:09,813 to regain the Ohio boundary 1163 01:10:09,896 --> 01:10:13,688 as a boundary between the white settlements and the Indians. 1164 01:10:13,813 --> 01:10:17,187 And he sold that goal to the British. 1165 01:10:19,896 --> 01:10:22,938 NARRATOR: Arriving at the undermanned British outpost of Fort Malden 1166 01:10:23,021 --> 01:10:25,438 in the waning days of June, where most were convinced 1167 01:10:25,563 --> 01:10:28,688 that Canada would fall before the approaching American army, 1168 01:10:28,813 --> 01:10:31,688 Tecumseh changed the military equation on the ground 1169 01:10:31,771 --> 01:10:33,688 in less than three weeks, 1170 01:10:33,813 --> 01:10:36,312 rallying wavering Indian allies to the cause 1171 01:10:36,438 --> 01:10:38,813 and bolstering British resolve 1172 01:10:38,938 --> 01:10:41,062 and astonishing the British commander in charge, 1173 01:10:41,187 --> 01:10:44,438 General Isaac Brock, with his extraordinary military skills 1174 01:10:44,563 --> 01:10:47,688 and sheer force of personality. 1175 01:10:47,813 --> 01:10:50,938 SUGDEN: I mean, Brock's remark is a classic one. 1176 01:10:51,062 --> 01:10:55,688 He spoke to Tecumseh for a very short time, a mere few weeks. 1177 01:10:55,813 --> 01:10:58,312 But he wrote back to the British prime minister and he says 1178 01:10:58,438 --> 01:11:01,813 that "I've talked to the Indian chiefs, and there are 1179 01:11:01,938 --> 01:11:03,813 "some extraordinary characters amongst them. 1180 01:11:03,938 --> 01:11:07,062 But here's Tecumseh," he says. 1181 01:11:07,187 --> 01:11:11,938 "A more gallant or sagacious warrior does not exist." 1182 01:11:13,187 --> 01:11:15,438 NARRATOR: Tecumseh's brilliance on the field of battle 1183 01:11:15,521 --> 01:11:18,563 in the summer of 1812 would cement his reputation 1184 01:11:18,688 --> 01:11:19,938 among the British high command 1185 01:11:20,021 --> 01:11:23,062 as one of the greatest military leaders of all time. 1186 01:11:23,146 --> 01:11:25,187 In little more than three weeks, 1187 01:11:25,312 --> 01:11:28,062 the small but highly mobile force under his command 1188 01:11:28,187 --> 01:11:32,062 completely unnerved the American army led by William Hull, 1189 01:11:32,146 --> 01:11:34,813 forcing him to retreat back across the Detroit River 1190 01:11:34,938 --> 01:11:36,187 to the American side 1191 01:11:36,312 --> 01:11:40,563 and effectively bringing the invasion of Canada to an end. 1192 01:11:40,646 --> 01:11:44,062 On August 4, at the Battle of Brownstown, south of Detroit, 1193 01:11:44,146 --> 01:11:46,813 with only 24 warriors at his command, 1194 01:11:46,938 --> 01:11:48,187 Tecumseh attacked and routed 1195 01:11:48,312 --> 01:11:50,688 an American force six times as large, 1196 01:11:50,813 --> 01:11:53,438 killing 19, wounding 12, 1197 01:11:53,563 --> 01:11:57,312 while himself losing only a single warrior. 1198 01:11:57,396 --> 01:12:01,563 CALLOWAY: Tecumseh's finest hour is probably Detroit in 1812, 1199 01:12:01,688 --> 01:12:05,438 when Tecumseh teams up with Isaac Brock, 1200 01:12:05,563 --> 01:12:07,938 who finally seems to be the person 1201 01:12:08,062 --> 01:12:11,062 who is going to deliver on the promises 1202 01:12:11,187 --> 01:12:13,187 that the British have been making so long. 1203 01:12:13,271 --> 01:12:17,062 Tecumseh and Brock together mastermind 1204 01:12:17,187 --> 01:12:20,187 the capture of Detroit. 1205 01:12:21,563 --> 01:12:24,187 NARRATOR: On August 16, at the Battle of Detroit, 1206 01:12:24,312 --> 01:12:27,187 Tecumseh convinced the American defenders inside the fort 1207 01:12:27,312 --> 01:12:28,938 that they were facing an army 1208 01:12:29,062 --> 01:12:31,062 many times greater than their own, 1209 01:12:31,187 --> 01:12:33,813 parading his small host of warriors again and again 1210 01:12:33,938 --> 01:12:36,688 through a clearing in the forest. 1211 01:12:36,813 --> 01:12:39,688 Before the British and Indian attack had even begun, 1212 01:12:39,813 --> 01:12:43,062 a white flag appeared above the ramparts of the fort, 1213 01:12:43,187 --> 01:12:45,062 and the American army marched out 1214 01:12:45,146 --> 01:12:47,187 and surrendered their weapons. 1215 01:12:47,312 --> 01:12:50,688 It was one of the most humiliating defeats 1216 01:12:50,771 --> 01:12:52,813 ever suffered by an American army. 1217 01:12:52,896 --> 01:12:58,563 EDMUNDS: Fort Detroit falls; Fort Michillimackinaw falls. 1218 01:12:58,646 --> 01:13:00,938 Tecumseh and Brock, who are very close, 1219 01:13:01,021 --> 01:13:03,312 are able to take Fort Detroit. 1220 01:13:03,438 --> 01:13:05,938 They're able to, generally, gain the upper hand here 1221 01:13:06,062 --> 01:13:08,563 on the Detroit frontier. 1222 01:13:08,688 --> 01:13:11,688 CALLOWAY: And it seems as if the vision 1223 01:13:11,771 --> 01:13:15,187 of an independent Indian confederacy-- 1224 01:13:15,312 --> 01:13:17,813 an independent Indian state, if you like, 1225 01:13:17,896 --> 01:13:19,438 supported by British allies, 1226 01:13:19,563 --> 01:13:22,438 but independent of the United States-- 1227 01:13:22,563 --> 01:13:25,312 is on the brink of becoming a reality. 1228 01:13:29,312 --> 01:13:31,563 EDMUNDS: And then, unfortunately for Tecumseh 1229 01:13:31,688 --> 01:13:33,938 and unfortunately for tribal people, 1230 01:13:34,021 --> 01:13:35,813 General Isaac Brock is killed 1231 01:13:35,938 --> 01:13:38,688 fighting the Americans over by Niagara. 1232 01:13:38,771 --> 01:13:41,187 And the new British commander is named Proctor, 1233 01:13:41,271 --> 01:13:43,312 and he's much less aggressive 1234 01:13:43,396 --> 01:13:46,938 and much more interested in just defending Canada 1235 01:13:47,062 --> 01:13:52,563 and in not really helping tribal people retake part of Ohio 1236 01:13:52,688 --> 01:13:54,062 from the Americans. 1237 01:13:54,187 --> 01:13:56,688 Tecumseh has to continually goad Proctor 1238 01:13:56,813 --> 01:13:58,938 to march against the Americans. 1239 01:13:59,062 --> 01:14:03,312 They invade Ohio twice, attempting to take Fort Meigs, 1240 01:14:03,438 --> 01:14:05,938 which was an American fort near modern Toledo, 1241 01:14:06,062 --> 01:14:08,563 and are unsuccessful. 1242 01:14:08,688 --> 01:14:13,062 NARRATOR: In the fall of 1813, the British fleet was defeated 1243 01:14:13,146 --> 01:14:15,938 not far from Detroit at the Battle of Lake Erie, 1244 01:14:16,062 --> 01:14:19,688 ceding control of the Great Lakes to the Americans. 1245 01:14:19,771 --> 01:14:22,688 By then, Lalawethika and a ragged band of followers 1246 01:14:22,813 --> 01:14:24,813 had appeared in his brother's camp 1247 01:14:24,938 --> 01:14:27,187 along the Detroit River in Ontario, 1248 01:14:27,312 --> 01:14:31,062 driven from Indiana by their old nemesis, William Henry Harrison, 1249 01:14:31,187 --> 01:14:32,938 who even now was moving north 1250 01:14:33,062 --> 01:14:36,312 at the head of a vastly reinforced American army. 1251 01:14:37,438 --> 01:14:39,563 EDMUNDS: The Americans invade Canada. 1252 01:14:39,646 --> 01:14:43,062 And particularly after Perry's victory on Lake Erie, 1253 01:14:43,187 --> 01:14:46,438 the British want to abandon the Detroit frontier 1254 01:14:46,563 --> 01:14:47,938 and flee to what is now Toronto. 1255 01:14:48,062 --> 01:14:50,187 And Tecumseh makes them stand and fight. 1256 01:14:52,312 --> 01:14:56,312 CALLOWAY: The British-Indian army turns to make a stand at Moraviantown, 1257 01:14:56,438 --> 01:15:00,312 on the Thames River in Ontario, in 1813. 1258 01:15:00,396 --> 01:15:03,062 The outcome of the battle seems really to have been 1259 01:15:03,146 --> 01:15:04,563 a foregone conclusion. 1260 01:15:04,688 --> 01:15:09,062 By the time the British general Proctor actually stops 1261 01:15:09,146 --> 01:15:11,563 to turn to fight, he has lost the confidence 1262 01:15:11,688 --> 01:15:15,312 not only of his Indian allies but of his own men. 1263 01:15:15,438 --> 01:15:17,813 When the fighting breaks out, 1264 01:15:17,896 --> 01:15:19,938 the British resistance is minimal. 1265 01:15:20,062 --> 01:15:22,438 What resistance is mounted 1266 01:15:22,563 --> 01:15:25,563 is mounted by Tecumseh and the Indian warriors. 1267 01:15:28,563 --> 01:15:30,563 NARRATOR: The final British betrayal would come 1268 01:15:30,688 --> 01:15:34,187 on the cold, misty morning of October 5, 1813, 1269 01:15:34,312 --> 01:15:37,062 when, as Harrison's vastly superior American forces 1270 01:15:37,146 --> 01:15:38,688 began their attack, 1271 01:15:38,813 --> 01:15:41,563 the British simply abandoned their Indian allies entirely 1272 01:15:41,688 --> 01:15:43,563 and left them to fend for themselves 1273 01:15:43,688 --> 01:15:46,438 on the field of battle. 1274 01:15:46,563 --> 01:15:49,062 And in one of the more remarkable speeches 1275 01:15:49,146 --> 01:15:51,563 given throughout American history, 1276 01:15:51,688 --> 01:15:53,062 Tecumseh says to the British: 1277 01:15:53,187 --> 01:15:54,938 "Look. You have somewhere to go. 1278 01:15:55,021 --> 01:15:56,187 "But we are standing here, 1279 01:15:56,312 --> 01:15:58,813 "and we are fighting for our homeland. 1280 01:15:58,938 --> 01:16:01,438 "And if you want to run, you run. 1281 01:16:01,563 --> 01:16:02,938 "But leave us the guns and ammunition, 1282 01:16:03,062 --> 01:16:05,438 because we will stand and fight." 1283 01:16:07,271 --> 01:16:09,688 Listen! Father! 1284 01:16:09,813 --> 01:16:12,813 We are much astonished to see you tying up 1285 01:16:12,938 --> 01:16:14,938 and preparing to run the other way. 1286 01:16:15,062 --> 01:16:19,187 You always told us to remain here and take care of our lands. 1287 01:16:19,312 --> 01:16:22,688 And it made our hearts glad to hear that was your wish. 1288 01:16:22,771 --> 01:16:28,813 But now we see you drawing back like a fat animal, 1289 01:16:28,896 --> 01:16:32,062 running off with its tail between its legs... 1290 01:16:32,187 --> 01:16:33,563 (warriors shout in agreement) 1291 01:16:33,688 --> 01:16:34,563 Listen! 1292 01:16:34,646 --> 01:16:35,688 Father! 1293 01:16:35,813 --> 01:16:38,062 The Americans have not yet defeated us by land. 1294 01:16:38,187 --> 01:16:41,938 We, therefore, wish to remain and face our enemy, 1295 01:16:42,062 --> 01:16:44,438 should they make their appearance. 1296 01:16:44,563 --> 01:16:47,938 If you have an idea of going away, 1297 01:16:48,021 --> 01:16:49,563 leave us the guns and ammunition 1298 01:16:49,688 --> 01:16:53,187 and you may go, and welcome for it. 1299 01:16:53,312 --> 01:16:55,688 (warriors shout) 1300 01:16:55,771 --> 01:16:58,438 Our lives are in the hands of the Great Spirit. 1301 01:16:58,521 --> 01:16:59,938 (warriors shout) 1302 01:17:00,062 --> 01:17:05,062 We are determined to defend our lands, and if it is his will, 1303 01:17:05,146 --> 01:17:07,563 we shall leave our bones upon them. 1304 01:17:07,688 --> 01:17:11,771 (warriors whooping) 1305 01:17:21,146 --> 01:17:25,438 SUGDEN: And then, finally, at the end, you often tell great leaders 1306 01:17:25,563 --> 01:17:28,563 in the way they react in adversity, 1307 01:17:28,646 --> 01:17:31,563 rather than victory. 1308 01:17:31,646 --> 01:17:34,062 He knew that the British had given way 1309 01:17:34,187 --> 01:17:37,312 before they engaged themselves. 1310 01:17:37,438 --> 01:17:42,062 And, yet, there is no question of him retreating. 1311 01:17:42,187 --> 01:17:45,438 There is no question of him doing the "sensible" thing, 1312 01:17:45,563 --> 01:17:48,563 which is to fight another day. 1313 01:17:48,688 --> 01:17:52,062 He has committed himself to this act. 1314 01:17:52,187 --> 01:17:55,438 He has said he's going to defend this land 1315 01:17:55,521 --> 01:17:58,187 and, if necessary, he's going to die for this land. 1316 01:17:58,271 --> 01:18:00,521 And that's what he does. 1317 01:18:02,187 --> 01:18:04,563 (gunshot) 1318 01:18:39,312 --> 01:18:42,312 EDMUNDS: You couldn't think, in some ways, of a more fitting way 1319 01:18:42,438 --> 01:18:43,813 for Tecumseh to die. 1320 01:18:43,938 --> 01:18:47,062 He dies in the final battle here 1321 01:18:47,187 --> 01:18:50,062 for the control of the Great Lakes. 1322 01:18:50,146 --> 01:18:53,187 And he dies surrounded by his comrades. 1323 01:18:53,312 --> 01:18:57,187 He dies killed by the Americans. 1324 01:18:57,312 --> 01:19:01,938 And in the aftermath, his body is mutilated so badly 1325 01:19:02,062 --> 01:19:04,062 by Harrison's Kentucky militia 1326 01:19:04,187 --> 01:19:08,062 that the Americans who know him can't really identify him. 1327 01:19:14,688 --> 01:19:17,688 CALLOWAY: And with Tecumseh dies, of course, 1328 01:19:17,771 --> 01:19:21,438 the person who has held together the Indian confederacy, 1329 01:19:21,563 --> 01:19:25,062 the person who has represented the best hope 1330 01:19:25,187 --> 01:19:28,312 for Indian independence in North America. 1331 01:19:33,771 --> 01:19:37,563 The death of Tecumseh puts, in a sense, finality 1332 01:19:37,646 --> 01:19:40,688 on the American conquest of that area-- 1333 01:19:40,813 --> 01:19:43,312 that what we know now as an American heartland 1334 01:19:43,396 --> 01:19:45,563 is going to be American. 1335 01:19:45,688 --> 01:19:50,062 There will be no place in there for Indian people. 1336 01:20:07,438 --> 01:20:12,938 WARREN: I think Tecumseh is, in a sense, saved by his death. 1337 01:20:13,021 --> 01:20:14,938 He's saved for immortality 1338 01:20:15,021 --> 01:20:18,187 through death on the battlefield. 1339 01:20:29,688 --> 01:20:36,187 SUGDEN: One of the great things in icons is to bow out at the right time. 1340 01:20:36,312 --> 01:20:42,312 And one of the things Tecumseh does is he never lets you down. 1341 01:20:42,438 --> 01:20:45,688 He was there, articulating his position-- 1342 01:20:45,813 --> 01:20:50,813 uncompromisingly pro-Native American position; 1343 01:20:50,896 --> 01:20:53,062 he never signs the treaties. 1344 01:20:53,187 --> 01:20:57,062 He never reneges on those basic principles 1345 01:20:57,187 --> 01:21:02,938 of the sacrosanct aboriginal holding of this territory. 1346 01:21:03,062 --> 01:21:07,187 He bows out at the peak of this great movement he is leading. 1347 01:21:07,312 --> 01:21:11,062 He's there right at the end, whatever the odds are, 1348 01:21:11,146 --> 01:21:15,062 fighting for it into the dying moments. 1349 01:21:16,688 --> 01:21:20,438 CALLOWAY: I think one of the things that is so important about Tecumseh 1350 01:21:20,563 --> 01:21:25,938 is that he is a person who by his vision 1351 01:21:26,021 --> 01:21:30,062 and by his personality and the way he conducts himself 1352 01:21:30,146 --> 01:21:33,438 gives us glimpses of humanity at its best. 1353 01:21:33,563 --> 01:21:36,062 That in the most difficult of situations-- 1354 01:21:36,146 --> 01:21:39,187 in the most hopeless of situations, perhaps-- 1355 01:21:39,312 --> 01:21:42,938 people can have the courage to stand up and fight 1356 01:21:43,021 --> 01:21:44,813 for what they believe in. 1357 01:21:44,938 --> 01:21:47,312 Courage in the face of adversity; 1358 01:21:47,438 --> 01:21:50,021 Tecumseh personifies it. 1359 01:21:51,438 --> 01:21:55,563 Hope-- hope and freedom. 1360 01:21:57,312 --> 01:22:01,813 That's what I thought he stood for. 1361 01:22:01,896 --> 01:22:04,187 And his vision that he had. 1362 01:22:04,271 --> 01:22:07,187 You know, the way he looked into the future 1363 01:22:07,312 --> 01:22:09,312 and tried to stop progress 1364 01:22:09,438 --> 01:22:12,062 for the red people. 1365 01:22:14,438 --> 01:22:17,312 SHERMAN TIGER: For some people, they may call him a troublemaker. 1366 01:22:17,396 --> 01:22:21,062 And I think that's because, in the end, he lost. 1367 01:22:21,146 --> 01:22:26,563 Had he won, he'd have been, you know, a hero. 1368 01:22:26,646 --> 01:22:29,688 But I think, to a degree, he still has to be recognized 1369 01:22:29,813 --> 01:22:34,062 as a hero for what he attempted to do. 1370 01:22:34,187 --> 01:22:36,062 If he had, you know, 1371 01:22:36,146 --> 01:22:37,312 a little more help, 1372 01:22:37,438 --> 01:22:52,312 maybe he would have got a little farther down the line. 1373 01:22:52,396 --> 01:22:55,062 Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org