Family History Writing Challenge Day 10- Tecumseh and Pushmataha

The path and the problem

The Native Americans in the region saw the signs of inevitable change at their doorstep. The federal horse path from Washington had become a Federal Road, and white settlers were flooding their way into the territory, with oxen pulling wagons full of their children and worldly goods or mules dragging the hogsheads of those families who could not even afford a wagon. The wealthy brought their slave families along the road, who in turn drove herds of cattle. The rich rode horses; the poor walked. The road was a muddy, rutted mess, crowded with newcomers looking for cheap land and a new life. It was a death knell for Indians wanting to preserve their old life.

The settlements were rapidly encroaching on Indian lands, and the settlers and their government were hungry to procure more land. Cattle and hogs from the settlement trampled Indian hunting grounds and their fields of corn. Deer and other game, which had once been plentiful, were now scarce. The influx of people had thinned the existing herds and wildlife. The Indians faced famine. The settlers also brought diseases which assaulted the Indians- small pox and fevers. The people were hungry, and many were dying. They faced extinction, expulsion (to lands west) or forced assimilation. There was little hope for the survival of their people, let alone of their culture.

Tecumseh (1)

Tecumseh 

In September, 1811, the great Shawnee leader, Tecumseh, came with his brother, Prophet Tenskwatawa, and twenty of his warriors, to speak to the southeastern tribes. He had spoken to the Chickasaws, and traveled across Okitbbeha Creek to meet with the Choctaws. After leaving the Six Towns region, he traveled on to the village of Mushulatubbee, and on to the village of Hoentubbee. Here he requested that all of the leaders come to meet with him. The great Choctaw mingoes and chiefs of all the districts gathered to hear him- Pushmataha, Mushulatubbee, Puckshenubbe, Hoentubbee, and David Folsom, and John Pitchlynn. Hoentubbee later told of the gathering.

“All were dressed, and painted alike. Their arms were rifles, with tomahawks and scalping knives in their belts. Their dress was a buckskin hunting shirt, a cloth flap, with buckskin leggings and moccasins profusely fringed and beaded. All wore garters below the knees. Their hair was plaited in a long cue of three plaits hanging down below the shoulders, while each temple was closely shaven. The heads of all, except Tecumseh, were adorned with plumes of hawk and eagle feathers. Tecumseh word, descending from the crown of his head, two long crane feathers, one white, the other dyed a brilliant red. According to Indian symbolism, the white feather was an emblem of peace….peace among the various Indian tribes. The red feather was a war emblem….war to their enemies, the Americans. They wore silver bands on each arm, one around the wrist, one above and below the elbow, and a few wore silver gorgets suspended from their necks…..Semi-circular streaks of red war-paint were drawn under each eye, extending outward on the cheek bone.” (1)

A great orator, Tecumseh spoke as follows to the gathering.

”…. The whites are already nearly a match for us all united, and too strong for any one tribe alone to resist; so that unless we support one another with our collective and united forces; unless every tribe unanimously combines to give check to the ambition and avarice of the whites, they will soon conquer us apart and disunited, and we will be driven away from our native country and scattered as autumnal leaves before the wind.”

“….Where the Narragansetts, the Mohawks, Pocanokets, and many other once powerful tribes of our race? They have vanished before the avarice and oppression of the white men, as snow before a summer sun. In the vain hope of alone defending their ancient possessions, they have fallen in the wars with the white men. Look abroad over their once beautiful country, and what see you now? Naught but the ravages of the paleface destroyers meet our eyes. So it will be with you Choctaws and Chickasaws! Soon your mighty forest trees, under the shade of whose wide spreading branches you have played in infancy, sported in boyhood, and now rest your wearied limbs after the fatigue of the chase, will be cut down to fence in the land which the white intruders dare to call their own. Soon their broad roads will pass over the grave of your fathers, and the place of their rest will be blotted out forever. The annihilation of our race is at hand unless we unite in one common cause against the common foe. Think not, brave Choctaws and Chickasaws,  that you can remain passive and indifferent to the common danger, and thus escape the common fate. Your people, too, will soon be as falling leaves and scattering clouds before their blighting breath. You, too, will be driven away from your native land and ancient domains as leaves are driven before the wintry storms.”

Sleep not longer, O Choctaws and Chickasaws, in false security and delusive hopes. Our broad domains are fast escaping from our grasp. Every year our white intruders become more greedy, exacting, oppressive and overbearing. 

Shall we give up our homes, our country, bequeathed to us by the Great Spirit, the graves of our dead, and everything that is dear and sacred to us, without a struggle? I know you will cry with me: Never! Never! Then let us by unity of action destroy them all, which we now can do, or drive them back whence they came. War or extermination is now our only choice. Which do you choose? I know your answer. Therefore, I now call on you, brave Choctaws and Chickasaws, to assist in the just cause of liberating our race from the grasp of our faithless invaders and heartless oppressors. The white usurpation in our common country must be stopped, or we, its rightful owners, be forever destroyed and wiped out as a race of people. I am now at the head of many warriors backed by the strong arm of English soldiers. Choctaws and Chickasaws, you have too long borne with grievous usurpation inflicted by the arrogant Americans. Be no longer their dupes. If there be one here tonight who believes that his rights will not sooner or later be taken from him by the avaricious American pale-faces, his ignorance ought to excite pity, for he knows little of the character of our common foe.” (2) 

(It should be noted that Tecumseh spoke strongly against the killing of women in children in war, and insisted that their lives should be spared during the ensuing conflict.)

Pushmataha

Pushmataha

The great Choctaw Mingo Pushmataha, who was present, conferred with other chiefs and councils, and a day later gave this answer to Tecumseh.

 
“Halt! Tecumseh, listen to me. You have come here, as you have often gone elsewhere, with a purpose to involve peaceful people in unnecessary trouble with their neighbors. Our people have no undo friction with the whites. Why? Because we have had no leaders stirring up strife to serve their selfish personal ambitions.

You heard me say our people are a peaceful people. They make their way not by ravages upon their neighbor, but by honest toil. In that regard they have nothing in common with you. I know your history well. You are a disturber! You have ever been a trouble-maker. When you have found yourself unable to pick a quarrel with the white man, you have stirred up strife between different tribes of your own race. Not only that! You are a monarch, an unyielding tyrant within your own domain; every Shawnee, man, woman, and child must bow in submission to your imperious will. The Choctaws and Chickasaws have no monarchs. Their chieftains do not undertake the mastery of their people, but rather are they the people's servants, elected to serve the will of the majority. The majority has spoken on this question, and it has spoken against your contention. Their decision has, therefore, become the law of the Choctaws and Chickasaws, and Pushmataha will see that the will of the majority, so recently expressed, is rightly carried out to the letter.

If, after this decision, any Choctaw should be so foolish as to follow your imprudent advice and enlist to fight against the Americans, thereby abandoning his own people and turning against the decision of his own council, Pushmataha will see that proper punishment is meted out to him, which is death.

You have made your choice; you have elected to fight with the British. The Americans have been our friends and we shall stand by them. We will furnish you safe conduct to the boundaries of this Nation, as properly befits the dignity of your office. Farewell, Tecumseh. You will see Pushmataha no more until we meet on the fateful warpath.” (3)  

After various speeches, the mingoes met with Tecumseh and advised him to leave their lands or be put to death. Hoentubbee and David Folsom escorted the Shawnee warriors across the Tombigbee, and out of Choctaw lands. Tecumseh and his followers rode on to seek support among the Creeks and the Seminoles to the east.

Resources:

Benton- The Very Worst Road, 1998

Halbert and Ball- the Creek War of 1812 and 1813

 Quotes

1    1- Halbert and Ball- the Creek War of 1813 and 1814 p. 43

2- "Sleep No Longer, O Choctaws and Chickasaws" (1811 by Tecumseh) Dictionary of American History. 2003. Encyclopedia.com

      3- http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/nativeamericans/chiefpushmataha.htm

       

      Illustrations

1- Tecumseh by Jacques Reich (Public domain via wikimedia commons)

2- 1824 portrait of Pushmataha by Charles Bird King.
Courtesy Mississippi Department of Archives and History.