The Significance of Tecumseh's Ideas - Review

Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa were brothers living in the same Kingdom. The young brother Tenskwatawa – who was a prophet - assisted leadership to his brother Tecumseh. It was during their leadership in India when Tenskwatawa and Tecumseh had an agreement that they were to end reliance on American goods such as alcohol, iron cookware and guns (Nichols, 2014). Their reason for end of consumption of such goods was that they had become dominant in their areas and could not move in their lives without the use of such commodities. On contrary, it was not an easy point to make such a decision. In this case, if the relationship between Americans and Indians were broken, the Americans would be driven out of their land (Sleeper-Smith, 2001). In his message, there was light to many people from India, and therefore it made many people have gatherings in their home town and the village – prophet’s town, in the Indiana Territory.

On the contrary, when people were much gathered at the prophet’s town for prophecies, Tecumseh used this opportunity for creating unity among the Indians and the white people. In his argument, he wanted the Indians to do away with their norms and get hold of each other. Working together was a sign of unity with the Americans. During his leadership, he moved to different places in his kingdom to seek for support from different counterparts (Sleeper-Smith, 2001). For example, he headed to areas of Appalachian Mountains and east areas of Mississippi River to meet with more tribes to have an agreement on how they were supposed to get united in his confederation. He was a strong man with belief that when many people have power, they can do great things. However, most people from the land could not agree with his believes. In his leadership, Tecumseh remained true to many areas where Indians were living such as the current day Tennessee, Georgia, and Mississippi. On counterpart, most Indians wanted to continue using products from white people as well as adoption of their culture and customs (Nichols, 2014). However, Tecumseh was a successful man in areas such as Ohio, Kentucky, and the Indiana Territory. In these areas, Americans had been making attempts to settling there since the time of war between French and India.

Tecumseh's ideas failed. Many Indians wanted to have more consumption of products from America and adopt American ways of life (Sleeper-Smith, 2001). For instance, Indians wanted to have friendship with Americans and have their products supply across the land. Due to his influence, Anglo-American ownership of ammunition was limited, and Indians could not have access to use of ammunitions (Nichols, 2014). When people had to meet in prophet’s town, Tecumseh had no enough resources to have his ideas passed on since there was no food to give to them and shelter. Trading with America, fur trade was made between Indians and Americans. The form of trading outdid the number of animals in lands such as Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana Territory which led to a little food which Indians could consume.