June 14, 2010 • 21 mins
Born in 1768, Tecumseh was a leader of the Shawnee tribe who united several Native American tribes in opposition against the expansionist U.S. forces. But who was this legendary leader? Tune in and learn more about the real Tecumseh in this podcast.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Stuff Works dot Com. Hello and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Katie Lambert and I'm Sarah Dowdy and our subject
for today is definitely on our top ten list of
(00:20):
most requested. It's Takumsa, who was the leader of the
biggest Indian resistance movement ever. He was a visionary and
a hero and died fighting for the survival of his people,
much like Sitting Bowl, but he almost won. And Tekomsa
was born in seventeen sixty eight and what's now Ohio
along the Scioto River, and he was of the Panther
(00:43):
clan like his dad, and it was one of the
divisions of the Shawnee tribe. And he may have also
had a little bit of Creak and English blood in him.
But his name meant shooting star or a panther crouching
for his prey, which are both really awesome definitions, I think.
And a little background on his background, we have to
talk about the French and Indian War. When that ended
(01:07):
in seventeen sixty three, the British had won, and they
thought they had won Canada, which technically they did, but
the Indians saw them as a threat and rose up.
The Shawnees were a big part of this rebellion. There
was a lot of killing and a lot of settlers captured.
And in seventeen sixty eight, when Takamsa was born at
(01:27):
the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy of New York,
which was very powerful, sold Kentucky and part of Pennsylvania
along the Ohio in the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, which
completely screwed the Shawnees and they didn't even share the
money with them. So that's a little background on where
he's from. Yeah, and the Shawnee are scattered all over
(01:47):
the country, and that's partly due to the Iroquois influence
and then partly because of the influx of settlers and
two comes of parents had settled in Ohio and joined
an established community there has had a lot of the
scattered Shawnee um but because of their troubles, they thought
that maybe the Great Spirit was displeased with them, and
if they returned to one of their homelands like Ohio,
(02:11):
where there were lots of sacred objects and um important
things to the tribe, they could maybe regain the Great
spirits favor, Ohio was the center of the world for them.
But talking about some of their troubles, we have the
encroachment on land by settlers and speculators. The Indians were
pushed farther and farther from their homelands, losing not only
(02:34):
their homes, but also their traditions, their togetherness, and their
entire way of life. Well in their game, which is
a really huge part of it all. I mean, it
meant starvation, and instead of trying to coexist, the settlers
simply forced the Indians out, and tension between the two
often erupted in violence on both sides. So if you
(02:56):
were a small child growing up like t comes, you
would witness death after violent death, and plenty of torture.
And you would also be a uh, sort of the
straddling of two different eras for your for your people,
because a lot of the white customs were starting to
infiltrate Indian culture, everything from diet to clothing and also
(03:18):
some not so great gifts like smallpox and alcohol. So
your world would be changing and it would be very
different from the way your parents grew up. So the
Indians are losing everything at this point, and they don't
know what to do. Do you fight, do you go
for a policy of appeasement, do you try to go
to the king and talk to him and see what
(03:39):
he can do. But those questions are answered for them
when Lord Dunmore's comes in the seventeen seventy four Lord
Dunmore's War, and his premise was basically that we needed
to fight the hostile Indians, although we would like to
point out that the Indians were only hostile because you
were taking their land and making them starve. So the Shawnee,
of course, will find and to come, says a young
(04:02):
boy then, and he's watching the war parties leave, and
here's the stories of them fighting fiercely and bravely, but
they were outnumbered and eventually lost. But he gets an
idea of honor, and his father sends back a message
with one of his other sons to maintain the dignity
and honor of their family. So the outcome of Lord
(04:22):
Dunmore's War for the Shawnee is that their crops have
been destroyed. Their ammunition has been used up, which is
a big deal because they don't have ammunition to hunt game.
So their face with starvation, and on a more personal
level for two come to he loses his father, and
his mother left shortly thereafter, maybe to go to relatives,
and she didn't return. And he also lost his white
(04:45):
foster brother, who had been captured a long time earlier
by his father and had lived with him for his
entire childhood. But after Lord Dunmore's wore, a lot of
captives were reforced to return to their families, even though
this boy did not want go back and begged to
stay so for a while. He lives with a chief
named Blackfish and more white foster brothers, which is an
(05:08):
interesting point to consider with his upbringing, that he does
grow up with white brothers, and uh, something to consider
for the future when we're talking about two comes to
fighting against white people, right, And for a little more
about his adolescence, he was a very good hunter once
he killed sixteen buffaloes in a row, according to legend,
(05:28):
and he was very charismatic. Tribal people in the nineteenth
century said he was a man of very strong medicine,
and he was respected and loved. He was a great speaker,
and it was clear to everyone that he was going
to be someone special. Yeah. Well, and he's also starting
to reform his ideas about the right way to fight.
He'd seen family and friends killed by white men, and
(05:51):
he's also seen the Indians fight back, and sometimes pretty cruelly,
and so he's seen this ruthless violence on both sides
and decides that that's not the way he wants to fight.
He's in favor of violent resistance when it's necessary, but
he's anti torture and anti cruelty if pro ruthlessness again
when necessary. So to put us again in historical context,
(06:16):
now it's the American Revolution. Both sides want the armed Indians,
but because the American settlers have been so terrible to
them so far, the Indians decide to fight with the
British with the promise that they will get some of
their land back for their service. But when it's all
done three piece of Paris, the Brits give all the
(06:37):
land to the Americans. They don't recognize their Indian allies
in any way. They're not even mentioned. Yeah, so they're
completely forgotten. And after that the fighting doesn't end either,
the fight for the Northwest and two come to joins in. Finally,
he's old enough to be a warrior, and he sees
his brothers die. So the Brits say that if the
Indians want to fight the Americans, they'll give them guns support.
(07:00):
So it's a question, now are you going to trust
the British again a second time? And you do. But
at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, the Indians lost and
they went to a British fort expecting help and support,
and the British wouldn't even let them in. So Two
Comes has learned an important lesson, as have the rest
of the Indians. The Brits have betrayed them yet again,
(07:23):
and now they have to sign the Treaty of Greenville
in August, in which the Indians gave up almost all
of their land in Ohio. But to Come so refused
to recognize it. Yeah, he thought that you couldn't just
go and talk to individual tribes about purchasing land, that
all Indians own the land together. It was a communal
(07:43):
possession and one individual or even one tribe can't go
about giving it away. So he's emerging as a leader
now and developing his ideology that all Indians are in
danger and they have to figure out something to do.
And to give you an idea of what two Comes
was up against in the early eighteen hundreds, Jefferson said
(08:04):
that for the backward Indians who wouldn't yield, we shall
be obliged to drive them with the beasts of the
forests into the stony mountains. And he had a plan,
the factory system, to put all Native Americans in debt. Basically,
you could trade for for goods with the government, but
it would never be equal, and it would put you
slowly deeper and deeper into debt. And once you got
(08:26):
so deep into debt that you couldn't pay it anymore, well,
the government was so kindly to take your land off
of your hands. Yeah, so this is what two come
so is up against, not only violence and war, but
these tricky little plans that are being worked out behind
the scenes. And so he formulates his own plan, and
that's too unite the Indians against the whites. And the
(08:50):
goal of unity is to put aside tribal rivalries, which
is not something that UH many were inclined to do.
It wasn't an entirely new idea. Indians have been trying
to do so ever since it became clear that these
white settlers were a threat, but it hadn't really worked
so far, and the obstacles to unity described by John Sugden,
(09:13):
and two Comes to a life where that the tribes
all had different languages, they had different cultures, they were
rivalries between them, tribal authority was weak, and they were
politically decentralized. So they're not well positioned for the kind
of confederacy that Two Comes I was hoping to build.
So but what's so impressive about Two Comes as uh
(09:36):
plan and his ambition here is that it is very broad.
I mean, he visits Indian tribes from Canada to the
Gulf of Mexico personally, and he envisioned this confederacy of Indians,
that he would bring people together through his charisma, his
fantastic speaking skills, but also the clear need that they
(09:57):
all had to save themselves. And he had a powerful
ally For a time, his brother who was known as
the Prophet, and the Prophet hadn't been such a great
guy to start with. He was an alcoholic, he couldn't
take care of his family, and then one day he
has this near death experience and he has a vision
and it just turns his life around completely. He quits
(10:20):
drinking cold turkey and um starts to preach and again
it's it's clear to everyone now that the way of
life is dying for the Indians. But the question for
them is why and what can they do? But the
prophet has their answer. He says that if they give
up all of their white customs and get rid of
white influence from alcohol to iron cookware, that the Great
(10:43):
Spirit will once again be happy with them and will
take the settlers away from their land. It's a return
to what once was and hope for downtrodden people. A
half of their men had been killed at this point,
or twice as many women as men. They've lost so much. Yeah,
they're looking for anything here. And so the two brothers
settled at a place called Prophets Town in eighteen o eight,
(11:05):
and their followers come, and a lot of Indians in
one place really upset the white people. They got very,
very nervous. And Uh two comes his winning support too,
So this is extra unsettling. He gains a reputation for
defying the government. And one man takes notice, William Henry Harrison,
(11:27):
who was federal governor of the Indiana Territory, and he
had of course communicated with Jefferson and understood what his
mission was. He negotiated with two comes a couple of
times face to face, and two comes to told him
that basically there was going to be a war. Harrison
kept up his dirty dealings, they would fight, and Harrison
(11:47):
had every intention of doing so. He called him an
uncommon genius. But that doesn't mean he was above bribing
Indians for their land and taking what little they had left.
Many of his land deals were possibly very legal. So
Harrison pulls what he probably thought was a pretty smart
move and challenges the profit to prove himself. And then
(12:08):
what do you know, A solar eclipse happens and profit delivered.
Not just any unlike seven Arola, It's not just any
solar eclipse either. I mean it's a very very dramatic one.
And uh now the prophet and his brother two come,
so that really have followers. People who are sort of
on the fence before, not quite knowing if they believed
(12:28):
in it, are really gung ho now and the white
people are freaked out. I mean, this is a disturbing turn. Well,
up to this point, the settlers have simply been able
to bulldoze the Indians, but this is different. This is
a real threat, something that could grow into big opposition,
and in two Comes told Harrison that he represented every
(12:52):
Indian on the continent. According to PBS is We Shall Remain,
which is part of the American Experience series, and that
was a huge deal to have one man not representing
just his tribe or his people, but all the Indians
at once. He's embodying what he wanted in that Confederates.
I mean, it's something that I'd say the Americans aren't
(13:13):
even entirely comfortable with. Yet. In eighteen eleven, two Comes
is on the road down south talking to some other
tribes and urging them to come together, and he was
aware that Harrison was near Prophetstown and planning to do something.
So he told his brother, the Prophet, absolutely not to attack,
but according to the Prophet, the Master of Life told
(13:35):
him that he had to, and so he obeyed. He
told his men that the bullets wouldn't hurt them and
attacked Harrison's forces on November seventh, eighteen eleven, which became
known as the Battle of Tippecanoe in today's Indiana, and
the Indians lost, but the Americans did have heavy losses themselves.
They then destroyed Prophets Town, and this is considered the
(13:57):
first battle of the War of eighteen twelve. But it
so terrible moral blow for the Indians too, because since
the prophet had told people he was invincible through the
Master of Life's grace, now people not only don't believe
in the religion anymore, but they don't believe anything the
two brothers have said. And supposedly Two Comes It comes
back to see his brother and is so enraged that
(14:20):
he shakes him. And it seems like their dream of
a confederacy has dimmed a bit. It seems like they're
not going to be able to rebound from this setback.
But Two Come so won't give up, and he continues
to travel all around the country speaking to his people
and trying to rally them to the cause. And he
wanted a permanent homeland for them. The way it's been
(14:41):
explained in some of the sources I was reading was
to picture a country within a country, a country that
has its own rules and customs and borders, and that's
what they could have. That was the hope. And it
comes to this argument that if they don't stick together,
they're gonna lose is persuasive enough to win back people
who were skeptical after tip a canoe in May eighteen twelve.
(15:04):
He's got eight hundred warriors in Prophets Town and four
thousand more getting ready in the Northwest, and he knows
war is coming. And to give you a little snapshot
of the War of eighteen twelve, the Brits were taking
American sailors by force, and no one likes impressment. They
also didn't want the US to trade with the French,
(15:24):
and they won't leave the country as they promised, So
tensions between the Americans and the British are already there.
And to come to as hoping to be able to
take advantage of this. Yeah, so he joins the British
in Canada with the idea that they'll help him get
some of his lands back, some of the Indians lands
in return for Indian service. And the British need the numbers,
(15:47):
they need people to help them with this fight, and
they're impressed with him when British general says of him,
a more gallant or sagacious warrior does not exist, So
to come so it brought his best, hoping to save
his people from being extinguished, and brought all of his
followers with him and was very successful. He managed to
scare the Americans out of Canada. Brigadier General William Hull
(16:10):
retreated all the way to Detroit and in August eighteen twelve,
whole surrendered Detroit before they'd even attacked. They had this
em ploy where they were marching, you know, Americans and
Canadians outside, to make it seem like there were so
many things at their numbers. Then there were, and Hull
looked out and thought no, just no, and raised the
white flags. So we lost to Canadians, you guys, and
(16:32):
we didn't even fight. So that must be why the
Canadians keep on suggesting this man. So TKMS has been
fighting with a British officer named Isaac Brock, but unfortunately
for us, Brock was killed and the new guy who
takes his place is named Henry Proctor, and he's not
(16:52):
quite the man that Brock was, and he's much more
interested in just keeping Canada defended and not helping t
Comesa in his cause. So two Comesa's left with this
guy Proctor, who really leaves a lot to be desired
to fight against William Henry Harrison, who is a tough
cookie for sure. And Harrison has invaded Ontario in eighteen thirteen,
(17:16):
and at the Battle of the Thames in October thirteen,
Harrison has three thousand, five hundred men. There are eight
hundred Brits, and there are five hundred Indians, and two
comesas as to Proctor, you have got to make a
stand against Harrison. But Proctor retreats, and I mean he
actually runs away from the battle, barely even fights. And
(17:39):
so two Comsa and his troops are left alone against
this huge opposing force of Harrison's and they'll never win.
They know they won't win. Everyone knows that they won't win.
But to Comesa says, he simply will not retreat, and
his men won't retreat. They're going to stay and fight.
They asked the British for their weapons at least, and
(17:59):
they headed to the woods, and Harrison's men went in
after them. Two come So died there, and his cause
died with him. But we don't exactly know where his
body is. Some people say that it was buried in
a secret place, safe from the Americans who may have
wanted to desecrate it. But some say that his body
was found and it was mutilated. The skin was cut
(18:20):
from it to make Razor Strops according to a Smithsonian article,
and everyone claimed that they were the one to kill
two Comes. I mean, that would be a very impressive
claim for for an American fighter, and since the war
wasn't going well for the Americans, this victory was really
exaggerated in the media. We've killed the great warrior two Comes.
(18:43):
Things are going really great, guys. We remember this is
before our bombardment of Baltimore exactly got some propaganda going.
And William Henry Harrison went on to become president with
the popular slogan behind him tipp a Canoe and Tyler too.
But that's not his best reputation, is it, because he
is the shortest lived president. Not if you've ever heard
(19:05):
of two Comes his curse. So people thought that the
Indians and two Comes to put a curse on Harrison
for all of his tricky illegal land deals, and that
was why he died so soon and in office. And
that's also why presidents elected in a year ending with
a zero died in office as well. But Ronald Reagan
(19:25):
broke the curse, although Reagan was shot, so maybe it
was just the power of the curse was diminishing over time.
You never know. So two Comes. This legacy has certainly
endured though even though he lost, he's become somewhat of
a hero for Americans and for Canadians and a couple
of Americans who were big fans of Two Come. So
(19:47):
where William to comes? To Sherman's parents. But I can't
say anything nice about him because I'm in atlantn So
we'll end there and go to listener mail. Speaking of
rising from the fire like a Phoenix, we got a
lovely postcard dire actually a homemade card from Laura in Phoenix, Arizona,
(20:09):
and um, she wisely learned that we're more likely to
read things that we get mailed, and her husband even
suggested that if she made something handmade, it would double
her chance. A glitter on it as glitter and it
says I'm a fan and it has a real picture
of a fan on it. Sarah's been talking about this
all day, so this is a big hit with us.
But she mentioned that as a former art historian, I
(20:30):
love the podcast about the Isabella Stuart Gardener Museum, and
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(20:51):
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home page
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Stuff Works dot Com. Hello and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Katie Lambert and I'm Sarah Dowdy and our subject
for today is definitely on our top ten list of
(00:20):
most requested. It's Takumsa, who was the leader of the
biggest Indian resistance movement ever. He was a visionary and
a hero and died fighting for the survival of his people,
much like Sitting Bowl, but he almost won. And Tekomsa
was born in seventeen sixty eight and what's now Ohio
along the Scioto River, and he was of the Panther
(00:43):
clan like his dad, and it was one of the
divisions of the Shawnee tribe. And he may have also
had a little bit of Creak and English blood in him.
But his name meant shooting star or a panther crouching
for his prey, which are both really awesome definitions, I think.
And a little background on his background, we have to
talk about the French and Indian War. When that ended
(01:07):
in seventeen sixty three, the British had won, and they
thought they had won Canada, which technically they did, but
the Indians saw them as a threat and rose up.
The Shawnees were a big part of this rebellion. There
was a lot of killing and a lot of settlers captured.
And in seventeen sixty eight, when Takamsa was born at
(01:27):
the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy of New York,
which was very powerful, sold Kentucky and part of Pennsylvania
along the Ohio in the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, which
completely screwed the Shawnees and they didn't even share the
money with them. So that's a little background on where
he's from. Yeah, and the Shawnee are scattered all over
(01:47):
the country, and that's partly due to the Iroquois influence
and then partly because of the influx of settlers and
two comes of parents had settled in Ohio and joined
an established community there has had a lot of the
scattered Shawnee um but because of their troubles, they thought
that maybe the Great Spirit was displeased with them, and
if they returned to one of their homelands like Ohio,
(02:11):
where there were lots of sacred objects and um important
things to the tribe, they could maybe regain the Great
spirits favor, Ohio was the center of the world for them.
But talking about some of their troubles, we have the
encroachment on land by settlers and speculators. The Indians were
pushed farther and farther from their homelands, losing not only
(02:34):
their homes, but also their traditions, their togetherness, and their
entire way of life. Well in their game, which is
a really huge part of it all. I mean, it
meant starvation, and instead of trying to coexist, the settlers
simply forced the Indians out, and tension between the two
often erupted in violence on both sides. So if you
(02:56):
were a small child growing up like t comes, you
would witness death after violent death, and plenty of torture.
And you would also be a uh, sort of the
straddling of two different eras for your for your people,
because a lot of the white customs were starting to
infiltrate Indian culture, everything from diet to clothing and also
(03:18):
some not so great gifts like smallpox and alcohol. So
your world would be changing and it would be very
different from the way your parents grew up. So the
Indians are losing everything at this point, and they don't
know what to do. Do you fight, do you go
for a policy of appeasement, do you try to go
to the king and talk to him and see what
(03:39):
he can do. But those questions are answered for them
when Lord Dunmore's comes in the seventeen seventy four Lord
Dunmore's War, and his premise was basically that we needed
to fight the hostile Indians, although we would like to
point out that the Indians were only hostile because you
were taking their land and making them starve. So the Shawnee,
of course, will find and to come, says a young
(04:02):
boy then, and he's watching the war parties leave, and
here's the stories of them fighting fiercely and bravely, but
they were outnumbered and eventually lost. But he gets an
idea of honor, and his father sends back a message
with one of his other sons to maintain the dignity
and honor of their family. So the outcome of Lord
(04:22):
Dunmore's War for the Shawnee is that their crops have
been destroyed. Their ammunition has been used up, which is
a big deal because they don't have ammunition to hunt game.
So their face with starvation, and on a more personal
level for two come to he loses his father, and
his mother left shortly thereafter, maybe to go to relatives,
and she didn't return. And he also lost his white
(04:45):
foster brother, who had been captured a long time earlier
by his father and had lived with him for his
entire childhood. But after Lord Dunmore's wore, a lot of
captives were reforced to return to their families, even though
this boy did not want go back and begged to
stay so for a while. He lives with a chief
named Blackfish and more white foster brothers, which is an
(05:08):
interesting point to consider with his upbringing, that he does
grow up with white brothers, and uh, something to consider
for the future when we're talking about two comes to
fighting against white people, right, And for a little more
about his adolescence, he was a very good hunter once
he killed sixteen buffaloes in a row, according to legend,
(05:28):
and he was very charismatic. Tribal people in the nineteenth
century said he was a man of very strong medicine,
and he was respected and loved. He was a great speaker,
and it was clear to everyone that he was going
to be someone special. Yeah. Well, and he's also starting
to reform his ideas about the right way to fight.
He'd seen family and friends killed by white men, and
(05:51):
he's also seen the Indians fight back, and sometimes pretty cruelly,
and so he's seen this ruthless violence on both sides
and decides that that's not the way he wants to fight.
He's in favor of violent resistance when it's necessary, but
he's anti torture and anti cruelty if pro ruthlessness again
when necessary. So to put us again in historical context,
(06:16):
now it's the American Revolution. Both sides want the armed Indians,
but because the American settlers have been so terrible to
them so far, the Indians decide to fight with the
British with the promise that they will get some of
their land back for their service. But when it's all
done three piece of Paris, the Brits give all the
(06:37):
land to the Americans. They don't recognize their Indian allies
in any way. They're not even mentioned. Yeah, so they're
completely forgotten. And after that the fighting doesn't end either,
the fight for the Northwest and two come to joins in. Finally,
he's old enough to be a warrior, and he sees
his brothers die. So the Brits say that if the
Indians want to fight the Americans, they'll give them guns support.
(07:00):
So it's a question, now are you going to trust
the British again a second time? And you do. But
at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, the Indians lost and
they went to a British fort expecting help and support,
and the British wouldn't even let them in. So Two
Comes has learned an important lesson, as have the rest
of the Indians. The Brits have betrayed them yet again,
(07:23):
and now they have to sign the Treaty of Greenville
in August, in which the Indians gave up almost all
of their land in Ohio. But to Come so refused
to recognize it. Yeah, he thought that you couldn't just
go and talk to individual tribes about purchasing land, that
all Indians own the land together. It was a communal
(07:43):
possession and one individual or even one tribe can't go
about giving it away. So he's emerging as a leader
now and developing his ideology that all Indians are in
danger and they have to figure out something to do.
And to give you an idea of what two Comes
was up against in the early eighteen hundreds, Jefferson said
(08:04):
that for the backward Indians who wouldn't yield, we shall
be obliged to drive them with the beasts of the
forests into the stony mountains. And he had a plan,
the factory system, to put all Native Americans in debt. Basically,
you could trade for for goods with the government, but
it would never be equal, and it would put you
slowly deeper and deeper into debt. And once you got
(08:26):
so deep into debt that you couldn't pay it anymore, well,
the government was so kindly to take your land off
of your hands. Yeah, so this is what two come
so is up against, not only violence and war, but
these tricky little plans that are being worked out behind
the scenes. And so he formulates his own plan, and
that's too unite the Indians against the whites. And the
(08:50):
goal of unity is to put aside tribal rivalries, which
is not something that UH many were inclined to do.
It wasn't an entirely new idea. Indians have been trying
to do so ever since it became clear that these
white settlers were a threat, but it hadn't really worked
so far, and the obstacles to unity described by John Sugden,
(09:13):
and two Comes to a life where that the tribes
all had different languages, they had different cultures, they were
rivalries between them, tribal authority was weak, and they were
politically decentralized. So they're not well positioned for the kind
of confederacy that Two Comes I was hoping to build.
So but what's so impressive about Two Comes as uh
(09:36):
plan and his ambition here is that it is very broad.
I mean, he visits Indian tribes from Canada to the
Gulf of Mexico personally, and he envisioned this confederacy of Indians,
that he would bring people together through his charisma, his
fantastic speaking skills, but also the clear need that they
(09:57):
all had to save themselves. And he had a powerful
ally For a time, his brother who was known as
the Prophet, and the Prophet hadn't been such a great
guy to start with. He was an alcoholic, he couldn't
take care of his family, and then one day he
has this near death experience and he has a vision
and it just turns his life around completely. He quits
(10:20):
drinking cold turkey and um starts to preach and again
it's it's clear to everyone now that the way of
life is dying for the Indians. But the question for
them is why and what can they do? But the
prophet has their answer. He says that if they give
up all of their white customs and get rid of
white influence from alcohol to iron cookware, that the Great
(10:43):
Spirit will once again be happy with them and will
take the settlers away from their land. It's a return
to what once was and hope for downtrodden people. A
half of their men had been killed at this point,
or twice as many women as men. They've lost so much. Yeah,
they're looking for anything here. And so the two brothers
settled at a place called Prophets Town in eighteen o eight,
(11:05):
and their followers come, and a lot of Indians in
one place really upset the white people. They got very,
very nervous. And Uh two comes his winning support too,
So this is extra unsettling. He gains a reputation for
defying the government. And one man takes notice, William Henry Harrison,
(11:27):
who was federal governor of the Indiana Territory, and he
had of course communicated with Jefferson and understood what his
mission was. He negotiated with two comes a couple of
times face to face, and two comes to told him
that basically there was going to be a war. Harrison
kept up his dirty dealings, they would fight, and Harrison
(11:47):
had every intention of doing so. He called him an
uncommon genius. But that doesn't mean he was above bribing
Indians for their land and taking what little they had left.
Many of his land deals were possibly very legal. So
Harrison pulls what he probably thought was a pretty smart
move and challenges the profit to prove himself. And then
(12:08):
what do you know, A solar eclipse happens and profit delivered.
Not just any unlike seven Arola, It's not just any
solar eclipse either. I mean it's a very very dramatic one.
And uh now the prophet and his brother two come,
so that really have followers. People who are sort of
on the fence before, not quite knowing if they believed
(12:28):
in it, are really gung ho now and the white
people are freaked out. I mean, this is a disturbing turn. Well,
up to this point, the settlers have simply been able
to bulldoze the Indians, but this is different. This is
a real threat, something that could grow into big opposition,
and in two Comes told Harrison that he represented every
(12:52):
Indian on the continent. According to PBS is We Shall Remain,
which is part of the American Experience series, and that
was a huge deal to have one man not representing
just his tribe or his people, but all the Indians
at once. He's embodying what he wanted in that Confederates.
I mean, it's something that I'd say the Americans aren't
(13:13):
even entirely comfortable with. Yet. In eighteen eleven, two Comes
is on the road down south talking to some other
tribes and urging them to come together, and he was
aware that Harrison was near Prophetstown and planning to do something.
So he told his brother, the Prophet, absolutely not to attack,
but according to the Prophet, the Master of Life told
(13:35):
him that he had to, and so he obeyed. He
told his men that the bullets wouldn't hurt them and
attacked Harrison's forces on November seventh, eighteen eleven, which became
known as the Battle of Tippecanoe in today's Indiana, and
the Indians lost, but the Americans did have heavy losses themselves.
They then destroyed Prophets Town, and this is considered the
(13:57):
first battle of the War of eighteen twelve. But it
so terrible moral blow for the Indians too, because since
the prophet had told people he was invincible through the
Master of Life's grace, now people not only don't believe
in the religion anymore, but they don't believe anything the
two brothers have said. And supposedly Two Comes It comes
back to see his brother and is so enraged that
(14:20):
he shakes him. And it seems like their dream of
a confederacy has dimmed a bit. It seems like they're
not going to be able to rebound from this setback.
But Two Come so won't give up, and he continues
to travel all around the country speaking to his people
and trying to rally them to the cause. And he
wanted a permanent homeland for them. The way it's been
(14:41):
explained in some of the sources I was reading was
to picture a country within a country, a country that
has its own rules and customs and borders, and that's
what they could have. That was the hope. And it
comes to this argument that if they don't stick together,
they're gonna lose is persuasive enough to win back people
who were skeptical after tip a canoe in May eighteen twelve.
(15:04):
He's got eight hundred warriors in Prophets Town and four
thousand more getting ready in the Northwest, and he knows
war is coming. And to give you a little snapshot
of the War of eighteen twelve, the Brits were taking
American sailors by force, and no one likes impressment. They
also didn't want the US to trade with the French,
(15:24):
and they won't leave the country as they promised, So
tensions between the Americans and the British are already there.
And to come to as hoping to be able to
take advantage of this. Yeah, so he joins the British
in Canada with the idea that they'll help him get
some of his lands back, some of the Indians lands
in return for Indian service. And the British need the numbers,
(15:47):
they need people to help them with this fight, and
they're impressed with him when British general says of him,
a more gallant or sagacious warrior does not exist, So
to come so it brought his best, hoping to save
his people from being extinguished, and brought all of his
followers with him and was very successful. He managed to
scare the Americans out of Canada. Brigadier General William Hull
(16:10):
retreated all the way to Detroit and in August eighteen twelve,
whole surrendered Detroit before they'd even attacked. They had this
em ploy where they were marching, you know, Americans and
Canadians outside, to make it seem like there were so
many things at their numbers. Then there were, and Hull
looked out and thought no, just no, and raised the
white flags. So we lost to Canadians, you guys, and
(16:32):
we didn't even fight. So that must be why the
Canadians keep on suggesting this man. So TKMS has been
fighting with a British officer named Isaac Brock, but unfortunately
for us, Brock was killed and the new guy who
takes his place is named Henry Proctor, and he's not
(16:52):
quite the man that Brock was, and he's much more
interested in just keeping Canada defended and not helping t
Comesa in his cause. So two Comesa's left with this
guy Proctor, who really leaves a lot to be desired
to fight against William Henry Harrison, who is a tough
cookie for sure. And Harrison has invaded Ontario in eighteen thirteen,
(17:16):
and at the Battle of the Thames in October thirteen,
Harrison has three thousand, five hundred men. There are eight
hundred Brits, and there are five hundred Indians, and two
comesas as to Proctor, you have got to make a
stand against Harrison. But Proctor retreats, and I mean he
actually runs away from the battle, barely even fights. And
(17:39):
so two Comsa and his troops are left alone against
this huge opposing force of Harrison's and they'll never win.
They know they won't win. Everyone knows that they won't win.
But to Comesa says, he simply will not retreat, and
his men won't retreat. They're going to stay and fight.
They asked the British for their weapons at least, and
(17:59):
they headed to the woods, and Harrison's men went in
after them. Two come So died there, and his cause
died with him. But we don't exactly know where his
body is. Some people say that it was buried in
a secret place, safe from the Americans who may have
wanted to desecrate it. But some say that his body
was found and it was mutilated. The skin was cut
(18:20):
from it to make Razor Strops according to a Smithsonian article,
and everyone claimed that they were the one to kill
two Comes. I mean, that would be a very impressive
claim for for an American fighter, and since the war
wasn't going well for the Americans, this victory was really
exaggerated in the media. We've killed the great warrior two Comes.
(18:43):
Things are going really great, guys. We remember this is
before our bombardment of Baltimore exactly got some propaganda going.
And William Henry Harrison went on to become president with
the popular slogan behind him tipp a Canoe and Tyler too.
But that's not his best reputation, is it, because he
is the shortest lived president. Not if you've ever heard
(19:05):
of two Comes his curse. So people thought that the
Indians and two Comes to put a curse on Harrison
for all of his tricky illegal land deals, and that
was why he died so soon and in office. And
that's also why presidents elected in a year ending with
a zero died in office as well. But Ronald Reagan
(19:25):
broke the curse, although Reagan was shot, so maybe it
was just the power of the curse was diminishing over time.
You never know. So two Comes. This legacy has certainly
endured though even though he lost, he's become somewhat of
a hero for Americans and for Canadians and a couple
of Americans who were big fans of Two Come. So
(19:47):
where William to comes? To Sherman's parents. But I can't
say anything nice about him because I'm in atlantn So
we'll end there and go to listener mail. Speaking of
rising from the fire like a Phoenix, we got a
lovely postcard dire actually a homemade card from Laura in Phoenix, Arizona,
(20:09):
and um, she wisely learned that we're more likely to
read things that we get mailed, and her husband even
suggested that if she made something handmade, it would double
her chance. A glitter on it as glitter and it
says I'm a fan and it has a real picture
of a fan on it. Sarah's been talking about this
all day, so this is a big hit with us.
But she mentioned that as a former art historian, I
(20:30):
love the podcast about the Isabella Stuart Gardener Museum, and
I'm hoping for more art history topics and she listed
off of you. So let us know what you guys think.
If you're interested in hearing more about art history. Speaking
of art, we get a lovely postcard from Anna Marie
that's a panel from a Russian exposition in the Louver
(20:51):
and she said, I'm in fashion design school in Paris
and listening to episodes of Stuffy mist in History helps
him get through long hours of sewing. And then she
did a request for some old Russia topics, So if
you have any, please feel free to email us at
History Podcast at how stuff works dot com. We also
take suggestions through our Twitter at misst in History and
(21:14):
our Facebook fan page. For more on this and thousands
of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com and
be sure to check out the stuff you missed in
History Glass blog on the how stuff works dot com
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