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CHRONICLES OF CANADA
Edited by George M. Wrong and H. H. Langton
In thirty-two volumes
TECUMSEH
A Chronicle of the last Great Leader of his People
By ETHEL T. RAYMOND
TORONTO, 1915
Three Indian figures stand out in bold relief on the background ofCanadian history—the figures of Pontiac, Brant, and Tecumseh. TheOttawa chief Pontiac was the friend of the French, and, when theFrench suffered defeat, he plotted and fought to drive the Englishfrom the Indian country. Brant, the Mohawk, took the king's sideagainst the Americans in the War of Independence, and finally ledhis defeated people to Canada that they might have homes on Britishsoil. And Tecumseh threw in his lot with the British in the War of1812 and gave his life in their service. But, while Pontiac foughtfor the French and Brant and Tecumseh for the British, it was forthe lost cause of their own people that all three were reallyfighting; and it was for this that they spent themselves in vain.
Tecumseh, whose story we are to tell in this volume, sprang fromthe Shawnees, an energetic and warlike tribe of Algonquian stock.The Algonquins, whose tribal branches were scattered from Labradorto the Rockies and from Hudson Bay to North Carolina, believed thata deity presided over each of the four cardinal points of thecompass. Shawan was the guardian spirit of the South; and, as thetribe to which Tecumseh belonged formerly lived south of theother tribes, its members became known as Shawanoes, orShawnees—that is, Southerners.
Little is known of the history of the Shawnees, for they wererestless bands, greater wanderers even than the generality ofIndians, and their continual change of settlement baffles historicalresearch. Upon the southern shores of Lake Erie, on the banks of theOhio, and along the broad Mississippi, at different times they pitchedtheir tents. The name of the river Suwanee, or 'Swanee,' corrupted fromtheir own, marks their abode at one time in Georgia and Florida.
The Shawnees were originally divided into twelve clans, each clanadopting as its totem a reptile, bird, or animal that at some timehad been regarded as a benign spirit. As a result of continualwars and wandering, however, the twelve clans had dwindled to four.Only the Mequachake, Chillicothe, Piqua, and Kiscopoke remained. Inthe first of these, which conducted all tribal rites, the chiefshipwas hereditary; in the other three it was the reward of merit.
To the Kiscopoke clan belonged Tecumseh's father, Puckeshinwau('something that drops'). He had been elevated to the rank of chiefby his brother-warriors, and at the time of Tecumseh's birth wasa powerful leader among his people. The panther was the totem ofhis clan. Tecumseh's mother, named Methoataske ('a turtle layingeggs in the sand'), is said to have been noted for wisdom amongthe women of her tribe, and her name shows that she belonged tothe clan having the turtle as its totem. After much wandering,Puckeshinwau settled down in the Ohio country with his family andthe