MOONEV] TECUMTHA •_' 1 5 



tions for the [lioneer ^I'ltlorc. In ISOI he w;is appointoil agent I'or the Cherokee and 

 took up hisresideneeat theajreney at Telhio hloekhonse, opjiosite the mouth of TelHeo 

 river, in Tennessee, continuing to serve in that eapaeity until his deatli. He was 

 succeeded a^ agent l>y Governor McMinn, of Tennessee. In the course of twenty-two 

 years he negotiated several treaties with tlu' Cherokee and did much to further the 

 work of civiHzation among tin'm and to defend them against unjust aggression. He 

 also wrote a journal of the expedition to (2uel)ec. His grand.son of the same name 

 was special agent for the Cherokee and Creeks in 1834. afterward achieving a repu- 

 tation in the legal profe.-'sion Ixjth in Teunesssee and in the District of Cohunliia. 

 Authvriliiv: Appleton, Cyclopiedia of American Biogra]>hy, 1894; Royce, Cherokee 

 Nation, in Fifth Annual Report Bureau of Ethnology, 1888; docmuents in American 

 State Papers, Indian Affairs, i and ii. 



(33) TEcrMTH.\ (p. 87): Tliis great chief of the Shawano and c(imman<lcr of the 

 allied northern tribes in the British service was born near the present Chillicotlie, in 

 western Ohio, about 1770, and fell in the liattle of the Thames, in Ontario, October 

 5, 1813. Mis name signifies a "Hying panther" — i. e., a meteor. He came of light- 

 ing stock good even in a trilie distinguished for its warlike qualities, his father and 

 elder brother having been killed in battle with the whites. His mother is said to have 

 died among the Cherokee. Tecumtha is first heard of as taking part in an engagement 

 with the Kentuckians when about twenty years old, and in a few ye^rs he had secured, 

 recognition a.s the ablest leader among the allied triVjes. It is said that he took jwrt 

 in every inijiortant engagement witli the Americans from the time of Harmar's defeat 

 in 1790 until the battle in which he lost his life. When about thirty years of age he 

 conceived the idea of uniting the tribes northwest of the Oiiio, as Pontiac had united 

 them before, in a great confederacy to re.sist the further ailvance of the Americans, 

 taking the stand that the whole territory between the Ohio and the Mi.'^sissippi 

 belonged to all these tribes in common and that no one tribe had the right to sell 

 any portion of it w ithout the consent of the others. The refusal of the government 

 to admit thi.s principle led him to take active steps to unite the tribes upon that 

 basis, in which he was seconded by his brother, the Prophet, who supplemented 

 Tecumtha's eloquence with his own claims to supernatural revelation. In the 

 summer of 1810 Tecumtha held a conference with Governor Harrison at \'inceimes 

 to protest against a recent treaty cession, and finding after exhausting his arguments 

 that the effort was fruitle.*s, he closed the debate with the words: "The President is 

 far off and may sit in his town and drink his wine, but you and I will have to fight 

 it out." Both sides at once prepared for war, Tecumtha going south to enlist the 

 aid of the Creek, Choctaw-, and other southern tribes, while Harrison took advan- 

 tage of his absence to force the issue by marching against the Prophet's town on the 

 Tippecancje river, where the hostile warriors from a dozen tribes had gathereil. \ 

 battle fought before daybreak of Novend)er ti, 1811, resulte<l in the defeat of the 

 Indians and the scattering of their forces. Tecumtha returned to find his plans 

 brought to naught for the time, but the opening of the war between the I'nited 

 States and England a few months later enabled him to rally the confederated tribes 

 once more to the support of the British against the Americans. As a commissioned 

 brigadier-general in the British service he commanded 2,000 warriors in the war of 

 1812, distinguishing himself no less by his bravery than by his humanity in pre- 

 venting outrages ami protecting prisoners from massacre, at one tiiue saving the 

 lives of four hundred .\merican prisoners who had been taken in aud)usli near Eort 

 Meigs and were unable to make longer resistance. He was wounded at Maguagua, 

 where nearly four hundred were killed and wounded on both sides. He covered 

 the British retreat after the battle of Lake Erie, and, refusing to retreat farther, 

 compelled the British ( ieneral Proctor to make a stand at the Thames river. .Vlmost 

 the whole force of the American attack fell on Tecumtha's division. Early in the 



