Customer Reviews

Tecumseh and the quest for Indian leadership (The Library of American biography)

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This book is a good overall view of the life of Tecumseh, the Shawnee chief. Also mentioned are his brother, the Prophet, and important historical events of the time. A good resource for those interested in the subject, a little dry for an everyday read.

This book is a textbook companion of the author's biography of Tecumseh's brother, Tenskwatawa or the Prophet. R. David Edmunds is known for both his combination of ethnographic material, oral tradition, and traditional historical research with good storytelling. His unique contribution is highlighting the importance of the religious message of revitalization to Indian resistance in the Old Northwest. This book is a good introduction to Indian experiences in the Old Northwest during the Revolutionary and Early Republic Periods. Those really interested in this title may want to continue their reading with "The Shawnee Prophet" by the same author, "A Spirited Resistance" by Gregory Dowd, and "The Middle Ground" by Richard White.

I read this book for a college Ohio History class. I hadn't had any previous knowledge about Tecumseh other than he was an Indian leader. Overall it was a very interesting book. Some may run into some problems if they do not fully understand the history of the War of 1812 in Ohio. Some of the battle descriptions go into detail. There is a chapter in the book that describes some of the Shawnee cultures and customs that I found very interesting.
All said, this is a very good biography of a very respected Indian leader.

On one level, this book is yet another iteration of the usual, sad story of continuous European encroachment of Indian lands via broken promises and the various trappings of European "civilization" (especially disease and alcohol) that undermined Native American culture. More specifically, it is the story of one Indian who tried, both intelligently and valiantly, to check the Caucasian tide.

Tecumseh lived from 1768 to 1813. His father was Shawnee; his mother was Creek. He was raised among the Shawnees of Ohio. He came of age after the Revolutionary War, as the young United States expanded gradually but relentlessly beyond the Appalachians into Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois. The prototypical pretense for expansion was a treaty with this or that group of Indians whereby the U.S. gave them money and trade goods in exchange for the right to settle on a vast tract of land that in most cases the Indian group in question did not truly own, at least vis-à-vis all other Indians. Tecumseh was savvy enough to understand the mechanism of American expansion and that it represented a collective problem for Indians who were splintered into numerous tribal groups. So, around 1807, Tecumseh proposed and began to pursue a two-prong policy. First, explicit recognition that all remaining Indian lands (lands not already ceded to the U.S. by one or another treaty, however fraudulent) were owned by all Indians, so that any future transfers of Indian land to the Americans had to be approved by all Indians. In other words, individual tribes no longer had the right to sell what they claimed to be their tribal territory to the government. Second, to stand up to what was, after all, a large political entity which could field a formidable military force, the Indians needed to put aside tribal interests and enter into a pan-tribal confederacy that could operate both politically and militarily, a confederacy in which everyone would work for the benefit of all Indians. "Only a widespread confederacy under strong leadership could ever preserve the remaining Indian land-base." For the last six years of his life, Tecumseh tried to be that leader and, along with his brother Tenskwatawa ("the Prophet"), tried to forge Indian unity.

For a brief period, Tecumseh rallied a surprisingly large number of Indians of many different tribes to his vision. As an Indian leader, he was noted both by Indians and Whites for his integrity, his oratorical skills, his military leadership and courage, and his firm opposition to savagery against women, children, and prisoners. The War of 1812 at first appeared to be an advantageous development for Tecumseh and his pan-Indian cause, as he was able to join forces with the British who were fighting around the Great Lakes. But for the British it was only a marriage of convenience, not a matter of life and death, and ultimately they proved unwilling to fight as desperately as Tecumseh and his warriors. In October 1813, at the Battle of the Thames in what is now Ontario, the British ignominiously retreated, leaving Tecumseh and his warriors to be overrun by a much larger force under the command of William Henry Harrison. Tecumseh was killed. Some American soldiers claimed that the person who shot him was Richard Mentor Johnson. Whether true or not (history is uncertain), the incident helped Johnson achieve the Vice-Presidency of the United States under Martin van Buren, just as Harrison's long-running and ultimately successful campaign against Tecumseh and the Indians eventually propelled him to the Presidency.

TECUMSEH AND THE QUEST FOR INDIAN LEADERSHIP tells the story of Tecumseh in a so-so fashion. The prose is workmanlike. There is some repetition. There are no footnotes. Too much space and attention are devoted to laying out the facts of Tecumseh's life (to the extent they are known) as opposed to analyzing and synthesizing them. Note: I read the first edition (from 1984), and perhaps the second edition is better. Still, I suspect that this, though commendably short, is not the best book there is on Tecumseh.

Few Indians now are more legendary than Tecumseh. Maybe Sitting Bull, Geronimo, and Crazy Horse. But those three, however heroic, clearly were martyrs to a lost cause. Even Tecumseh probably lived too late, from a Native American perspective. John Johnston, who served as an Indian agent among the Shawnees, said of Tecumseh that "[h]ad he appeared fifty years sooner he might have set bounds to the Anglo-Saxon race in the West." Perhaps.

I thought this book provided a good overview of Tecumseh's life and mission. This is a brief biography to be sure, but it is a good introduction to Tecumseh. Those looking for a detailed biography need to look elsewhere.

This thin book is surprisingly rich in detail. It is well written and does a very good job of separating legend from fact. It also acknowledges the situations where very little, or nothing, is accurately known about Tecumseh.

Very informative and interesting read, giving insight on Tecumseh and his Prophet brother which I had never been introduced to. I wouldn't say this is the most exciting non-fiction to read, but it's a pretty good book that gives on insight on Native American life and one of their long lasting leaders. This book dispels the myths and half-truths regarding Tecumseh, giving you the real deal.

Tecumseh was a powerful warrior and a powerful man. He led his people in what he thought was right, yet he did not stand for the massacre of those who took his people's land. This book gets that message through, but it is tedious. It reads like a high school textbook (and that is not a compliment).

it's a book for a class, how great can it be. Shipping was very quick though.