Canada and the US hold many reminders of this legendary Shawnee chief. Vancouver and Burlington have schools named after him. Ontario has a town of Tecumseh. Toronto, Sarnia and Clawson, Michigan, all have streets that bear this name, and Fort Wayne, Indiana is the site of the historic Tecumseh Street Bridge.
Obviously, Chief Tecumseh left a strong impression. He was born in 1768 in Ohio and died in Ontario at the age of 45.
Tecumseh lived during the height of colonial expansion. The Quebec Act of 1774, passed in Great Britain, had given native tribes some hope of retaining their lands, but when the American Revolution ended, the changed borders eroded the hope that land west of the Appalachians would remain in Indian hands.
During the late eighteenth century, more and more settlers were arriving, and suspicion ran high between Americans and British as well as between governments and native tribes. Tecumseh was a leader who saw the need to unite different tribes to defend their lands. To this end, he worked to create a confederacy. In this effort, he had the support of the Prophet, Tenskwatawa, who believed he was directly in touch with the Great Spirit.
But the forces of history were against the original inhabitants. During the 1790s the Ohio country was the site of three major battles. In the early years of the nineteenth century, Indians were forced to cede millions of acres of land. While Tecumseh was away from his home at Tippecanoe, it was the site of a battle with American forces, and was looted and burned.
After this, Tecumseh and his men fought against the American side. With Isaac Brock, he attacked Detroit. He was fighting alongside the British when he was killed in the Battle of Moraviantown.
Following his death, he was mythologized as a great Canadian patriot, embodiment of the "noble savage" stereotype of the times. But as Herbert C. Goltz points out, this simple view of Tecumseh's place in history does not stand up from a contemporary perspective. Clearly, the chief wished to help his people retain their lands and carry on their own way of life.
Act of Valor, a recent movie about the Navy Seals, made use of a poem by Tecumseh, in which he advocates courage, gratitude and respect.
According to the War of 1812 website, the name Tecumseh may mean a shooting star. However, his name has also been translated as Crouching Panther.
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