Tecumseh and the Prophet

July 1, 2020
A comprehensive biography of the noted Native American leader and his overlooked brother. William Henry Harrison, whose forces defeated Tecumseh at the Battle of Tippecanoe, held his opponent in such high esteem that he said, "If it were not for the vicinity of the United States, he would, perhaps, be the founder of an empire that would rival in glory that of Mexico or Peru." As it was, writes historian Cozzens, Tecumseh forged a powerful alliance of Native peoples in the area from Wisconsin to Ohio that attempted to contain white expansion into the region. Tecumseh took many of his "pan-Indian" cues from the Ottawa war leader Pontiac and the Delaware prophet Neolin, both of whom led resistances against British incursions a generation before him. Important in this struggle was Tecumseh's younger brother Tenskwatawa, called the "Shawnee prophet," whom some historians--Cozzens calls out Alvin Josephy, author of The Patriot Chiefs (1961) and other works--have depicted as a "delusional charlatan." Surely Tenskwatawa had his difficulties: He lived in his brother's shadow, and he battled alcoholism. Yet the accomplishments of the brothers in uniting sometimes-contending Native tribes into a formidable army were the makings of a legend. It was their misfortune that the Shawnee people inhabited the "fault line between French and British interests, and as such was fated to become an imperial battleground." Matters would grow worse with the War of 1812, when Tecumseh found an imperial ally in Britain but was killed on a battlefield in Canada--for which Harrison took undue credit. For various reasons, writes Cozzens, in the aftermath, Tenskwatawa "had fallen mightily in the fragmented Indian world that he and Tecumseh had striven to unite," and after unsuccessful attempts to negotiate reservation land in the East, he ended his days in a small settlement of refugees that became known as Shawnee Mission, Kansas. Blending historical fact with solid storytelling, Cozzens delivers a nuanced study of the great warrior and his times. (16 pages of color illustrations, 13 maps)

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July 13, 2020
Historian Cozzens (The Earth Is Weeping) delivers an enthralling, deeply researched dual biography of Shawnee leader Tecumseh and his younger brother, Lalawethika. Born in 1768 in modern-day Ohio, Tecumseh honed his warrior skills in a series of violent encounters with white settlers. Following the Northwestern Confederacy’s defeat at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, the Shawnee lost their homeland, but Tecumseh remained in the region and consolidated his political power as a village chief. Meanwhile, Lalawethika, who lost his right eye in a childhood accident, was a heavy drinker until a series of visions in 1805 inspired him to start a spiritual and cultural revival movement aimed at building a pan-Indian alliance “capable of resisting the onrushing white frontier.” Adopting the new name Tenskwatawa, he and Tecumseh built the Prophetstown settlement as their movement’s headquarters and clashed with territorial governor (and future president) William Henry Harrison. Siding with England in the War of 1812, Tecumseh was killed at the Battle of the Thames. Tenskwatawa, his power eroded and his planned confederation shattered, died in 1835 on a reservation in Kansas. Cozzens’s cinematic narrative is steeped in Native American culture and laced with vivid battle scenes and character sketches. American history buffs will gain a new appreciation for what these resistance leaders accomplished.

November 1, 2020
Acknowledging scholarly debt to Tecumseh by John Sugden, Cozzens (The Earth Is Weeping, 2016) incorporates into his portrait of the famed Shawnee leader the crucial influence of Tecumseh's younger brother, Tenskwatawa. Ridiculed by his tribe for lechery and alcoholism, Tenskatawa transformed himself and history when in 1805 he received revelation from the Great Spirit, who commanded him to prophesy a regeneration of Indian culture and a unification of the tribes to oppose the brutal encroachments of white settlers. Tecumseh was convinced of his brother's vision, and in ensuing years would become its political and military instrument. How he had attained prominence in Shawnee society occupies Cozzens' engrossing opening chapters as he focuses on the reputation Tecumseh acquired in frontier warfare. By age six, Tecumseh already knew his world would be a violent one, when his father was killed in battle in 1774. For the next 20 years, Tecumseh fought until the American victory in the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. Now a Shawnee leader, Tecumseh moved his people to Indiana Territory, whose governor, William Harrison, killed Tecumseh in battle in 1813. Cozzens' biographyis solidly researched, fluently written, and bound to stand as the best history to date about the Shawnee brothers' lives and effort to rally pan-Indian resistance.

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Starred review from August 1, 2020

The Shawnee leader, warrior, and orator Tecumseh (1768-1813) led a widespread intertribal resistance against the United States during the early 19th century in what is now Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois. The clash among the nascent United States, British Canada, and Tecumseh's Native American alliance culminated in the War of 1812. The text follows the lives of Tecumseh, his brother Tenskwatawa ("the Prophet"), and their nemesis, William Henry Harrison. The frontier country between Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh) in the east to the Mississippi River in the west is well mapped with forts, Native American towns, and battle sites. While Cozzens (The Earth Is Weeping) is an experienced military and political historian, he also shows his skill at revealing the social and daily realities of late 18th- and early 19th-century life, including wonderfully vivid descriptions of pioneer conditions and Algonquin villages. Although many detailed and highly factual novelized versions of Tecumseh's life are available, such as Allan W. Eckert's Sorrow in Our Heart and James Alexander Thom's Panther in the Sky, Cozzens provides a long-overdue nonfiction account. VERDICT Tecumseh's life and the wider struggle for the Great Lakes and Ohio River valley now has a current, solid work by an accomplished author.--Jeffrey Meyer, Mt. Pleasant P.L., IA

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