COVE

This painting, based on Benson John Lossing’s original 1868 engraving, uses watercolors on platinum print to depict Tecumseh. Tecumseh was a warrior and leader of the Shawnee tribe. During his lifetime, he aimed to unite all Native American tribes, with the help of his brother Tenskwatawa, in order to defeat the British and drive them of their land. In order to gain support from these tribes, he traveled throughout the country and gave speeches to convince these people to join his cause (Sugden 273). In 1811, he spoke to the Osage tribe with the goal of gaining their support and contribution of warriors. He began his captivating speech as follows: “Brothers—We all belong to one family; we are all children of the Great Spirit; we walk in the same path; slake our thirst at the same spring; and now affairs of the greatest concern lead us to smoke the pipe around the same council fire!” (Levine 484). These first few lines of his speech hold immense power and unity, as they immediately address that all Native Americans come from the same Great Spirit and that they are all one family, no matter what tribe they belong to. He also addresses the crowd as his “brothers,” therefore further establishing a familial connection to these men. Throughout the rest of his speech, Tecumseh reminds his brothers that all that is good has come from the Great Spirit and how all of the pain and suffering in their lives has been due to the white man. By giving these examples, he attempts to convince these warriors of the imminent threat that the white men pose on them and their families. He ends his speech by saying, “Brothers—We must be united; we must smoke the same pipe; we must fight each other’s battles; and more than all, we must love the Great Spirit; he is for us; he will destroy our enemies, and make all his red children happy” (Levine 485). In this way, it is evident that he ends his speech in the same way that he began, by calling to action his brothers to unite in the strength that the Great Spirit has given each of them, as a part of his family of red children. Despite his efforts to unite his brothers of the Osage tribe, which he attempted twice in his lifetime, he remained unsuccessful ("Tecumseh" [Encyclopædia Britannica]).

Works Cited

Levine, Robert S., et al. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ninth ed., vol. 1, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022.

“Tecumseh.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 8 Mar. 2024, www.britannica.com/biography/Tecumseh-Shawnee-chief.

“Tecumseh.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 31 Jan. 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tecumseh#/media/File:Tecumseh02.jpg.

Sugden, John. “Early Pan-Indianism; Tecumseh’s Tour of the Indian Country, 1811-1812.” American Indian Quarterly, vol. 10, no. 4, 1986, pp. 273–304. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1183838. Accessed 17 Mar. 2024.