Tecumseh
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Tecumseh was a Shawnee chief and warrior who promoted resistance to the expansion of the United States onto Native American lands. A persuasive orator, Tecumseh traveled widely, forming a Native American confederacy and promoting intertribal unity. Even though his efforts to unite Native Americans ended with his death in the War of 1812, he became an iconic folk hero in American, Indigenous, and Canadian popular history.
Painting of Tecumseh based on an 1808 sketch
Black Hoof (Catecahassa) emerged in the 1790s as the principal spokesman for the Ohio Shawnees. Most Shawnees followed his lead rather than Tecumseh's.
Tenskwatawa, Tecumseh's younger brother, founded a religious movement in 1805. (George Catlin, 1832)
In a famous 1810 meeting, Tecumseh accosts William Henry Harrison when he refuses to rescind the Treaty of Fort Wayne.
Shawnee
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The Shawnee are a Native American people of the Northeastern Woodlands. Their language, Shawnee, is an Algonquian language.
The Shawnee Prophet, Tenskwatawa (1775–1836), ca. 1820, portrait by Charles Bird King
Fort Ancient Monongahela cultures
Serpent Mound, Peebles, Ohio
Tecumseh, by Benson Lossing in 1848 based on 1808 drawing.