|
Guy Carleton | Jay's
Treaty | Black
Loyalists | Alexander
Mackenzie | Simon Fraser |
David Thompson |
John Graves Simcoe |
Captain George Vancouver |
The Northwest Company |
Prevost's Conciliation |
Tecumseh
| The War of 1812 |
Lord Selkirk |
Newfoundland |
Constitution Act 1791
Tecumseh was one of the more heroically
romantic figures in Canadian history and certainly
brought a consciousness of the native peoples into play
with both the British and the United States. He was born
a Shawnee Indian after the seven years war in 1768 near
present day Springfield Ohio and grew up as the
revolutionary war raged across the continent.
After the war was over
pressures began to grow on native bands along the
western boarder of the United States. One of the reasons
the American Revolution broke out was the restrictions
the British authorities had placed on the colonies in
relation to westward expansion. This had benefited
the native bands and keep their lands in the Ohio
country and along the Mississippi relatively safe from
colonial expansion.
After 1782 the
pressure began to build as the United States population
started to spill over the western boarder. Up until 1795
as a youth, he participated in attacks on settlers
coming into the area of the Ohio Valley. The treaty of
Greenville in 1795 ended this practice and a low
confrontation period ensued.
Tecumseh's older
brother was known as the prophet and like Pontiac the
two brothers realized that a larger Indian union or
confederation would be needed to resist the steam roller
of white settlement. Native groups had been decimated
and destroyed one at a time as European settlement and
then growth in America had accelerated. The Louisiana
Purchase in 1803 essentially recognized American claim
to all of the native lands in the Mississippi basin.
Tecumseh and his brother began to plan
and organize Indian bands from the Great Lakes to the
Gulf of Mexico. Their main base was near present day
Greenville, Ohio and they invited all native groups to
send warrior representative to resist, by force if
necessary, white encroachment on their lands. Tecumseh
used the belief that his brother had supernatural powers
as an aid to ring the native nations together under
their leadership. The popularity of Tecumseh and his
movement alarmed the U.S. authorities and the Governor
of Indiana asked to meet with the brothers in order to
expedite American land ambitions. In 1809 a treaty know
as "The Treaty of Fort Wayne" asked for 3 million acres
from the Indians in central Indiana and became a threat
to Tecumseh's entire confederacy dream. Harrison decided
to move on the Prophet's village and defeated the
natives at Tippecanoe, which later became one of his
campaign slogans when he ran for President, and broke
the spell of invincibility that Tecumseh had tried to
instil in his followers. Tecumseh was away during the
battle but incursions into the Indian land began to
increase as soon as word of their defeat spread.
By 1812 Tecumseh was ready to fight and
when war broke out between the British and the U.S. he
was quickly offered the rank of brigadier -general in
the British army and an opportunity to turn back the
American tide. Initially he and the British were very
successful and captured Detroit with little effort but
as the war dragged on American invasions began to take
their toll and on October 5th, 1813. Tecumseh was killed
during the fighting on the Thames River. His body was
never found and rumours of his escape persisted for
decades afterwards. His brother the prophet led a small
band of Shawnees over the Mississippi and west where he
lived until 1834. |
