‘Tecumseh and the Prophet’ a bold depiction
Peter Cozzens’ lively, thorough history in “Tecumseh and the Prophet: The Shawnee Brothers Who Defied a Nation,” details the lives and influence of the Shawnee military leader and his now lesser-known brother, whom he views as “among the most influential siblings in the annals of America.”
Cozzens, author of “The Earth Is Weeping,” makes a case that up until the early years of the 19th century, when Tecumseh began organizing warriors from various tribes into a military coalition dedicated to protecting land on which the United States was steadily encroaching, his younger brother was the better-known and perhaps more influential figure, even though “history, biography and folklore all came to deify Tecumseh and demonize his brother.”
Not that Tenskwatawa, who became known as “the Prophet,” showed the sort of early promise that his older brother, who was from youth steadily engaged in battles against the Americans and other tribes, did. Before he began seeing the visions that would inspire him to set up what amounted to a new religion, one that disallowed the use of alcohol and encouraged its followers to move away from using tools and weapons supplied by the Americans, Tenskwatawa was “a dissolute loudmouth”, and “an unappealing, disfigured ex-alcoholic who as a boy had accidentally shot his right eye out with an arrow.”
Once he started prophesying, he attracted followers from a number of different tribes. In the partnership he formed with his brother, he provided the theoretical framework, while Tecumseh organized the new followers into a military unit capable of taking on American forces.
The action of the book takes place in areas that would soon become Ohio, Indiana and Michigan. Tecumseh, Tenskwatawa and the other Shawnees moved from the area around Chillicothe to Greenville, Ohio, where the first Prophetstown was established, then on to the second Prophetstown in the Indiana Territory, where the crucial Battle of Tippecanoe took place.
If the book has a villain, it’s William Henry Harrison. As Secretary of the Northwest Territory and later Governor of the Indiana Territory, he clashed frequently with Tecumseh and his warriors. He was driven by political ambition, Cozzens claims, to push the various tribes out of whatever territory he was governing, using deceit and by playing tribe against tribe.
The book is likely to appeal most strongly to fans of military history. Cozzens has a gift for depicting the intricacies of combat with both clarity and flair. Those appalled by brutality should probably look elsewhere: This account doesn’t sanitize the torture and killings inflicted by the Americans, the Shawnee, and the other tribes.
It also doesn’t oversimplify the difficulties Tecumseh faced, or ignore his many failures along the way. In an account that essentially follows him year by year from childhood on to his death during the War of 1812, it devotes considerable time, for example, to his travels throughout the South, as he fruitlessly attempted to persuade members of the tribes living there to join him in fighting off the U.S. forces.
Though along the way Cozzens describes the everyday life of the Shawnee during the period, this is a history dominated by men, with women, usually unnamed, playing only a tangential role.
Given its military slant, and the fact that it is told largely from the points of view of its two protagonists, the dual biography comes across as fair and impartial. Without sentimentality, and without overlooking the faults of its heroes, it presents a nuanced look at their attempt to halt the invasion of their lands.
margaretquamme@hotmail.com