The Warrior and the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Brothers Who Led the Native American Resistance

by Peter Cozzens

The first biography of the great Shawnee leader in more than twenty years, and the first to make clear that his overlooked younger brother, Tenskwatawa, was a crucial partner in the last great pan-Indian confederacy against the United States.

Until Tecumseh's death in 1813, he was, alongside Tenskwatawa, the co-architect of the greatest pan-Indian confederation in history. Over time, Tenskwatawa has been relegated to the shadows, described as a talentless charlatan and a drunk. But award winning historian Peter Cozzens now shows us that while Tecumseh was the forward-facing diplomat--appealing even to the colonizers attempting to appropiate Indian land--behind the scenes, Tenskwatawa unified disparate tribes of the Old Northwest with his deep understanding of their religion and culture. No other Native American leaders enjoyed such popularity, and none would ever pose a graver threat to the nation's westward expansion than Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa.

Bringing to life an often-overlooked episode in America's past, Cozzens paints in vivid detail the violent, lawless world of the Old Northwest, when settlers spilled across the country to bloody effect in their haste to exploit lands won from the War of Independence. Tecumseh and the Prophet finally tells the untold story of the Shawnee brothers who retaliated against this threat--the two most significant siblings in Native American history, who, Cozzens helps us understand, should be writ large in the annals of America.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, American History, Indigenous, Native Americans, Native American

560 pages, Paperback

First published October 27, 2020

About the author

Peter Cozzens is the award-winning author of seventeen books on the American Civil War and the West. Cozzens is also a retired Foreign Service Officer.

His most recent book is A Brutal Reckoning: Andrew Jackson, the Creek Indians, and the Epic War for the American South (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2023). Cozzens's next book is Deadwood: Gold, Guns, and Greed in the American West (Knopf: September 2025).

Cozzens's penultimate book, Tecumseh and the Prophet: The Shawnee Brothers Who Defied a Nation, was published by Knopf in October 2020. It won the Western Writers of America Spur Award and was a finalist for the George Washington Prize.

His The Earth Is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West was published by Alfred A. Knopf in October 2016. Amazon selected it as a Best Book of November 2016. Smithsonian Magazine chose it as one of the ten best history books of 2016. It has won multiple awards, including the Gilder-Lehrman Prize for the finest book on military history published worldwide. It also was a London Times book of the year and has been translated into several languages, including Russian and Chinese.

All of Cozzens' books have been selections of the Book of the Month Club, History Book Club, and/or the Military Book Club.

Cozzens’ This Terrible Sound: The Battle of Chickamauga and The Shipwreck of Their Hopes: The Battles for Chattanooga were both Main Selections of the History Book Club and were chosen by Civil War Magazine as two of the 100 greatest works ever written on the conflict.

The History Book Club called his five-volume Eyewitnesses to the Indian Wars "the definitive resource on the military struggle for the American West."

His Shenandoah 1862: Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign was a Choice "Outstanding Academic Title" for 2009.

He was a frequent contributor to the New York Times "Disunion" series, and he has written articles for Smithsonian Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, True West, America's Civil War, Civil War Times Illustrated, and MHQ, among other publications.

In 2002 Cozzens received the American Foreign Service Association’s highest award, given annually to one Foreign Service Officer for exemplary moral courage, integrity, and creative dissent.

Cozzens is a member of the Advisory Council of the Lincoln Prize, the Western Writers Association, the Authors' Guild, and the Army and Navy Club.

Cozzens and his wife Antonia Feldman reside in Maryland.

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

“[T]he battle…was turning against Tecumseh. Indian casualties mounted. A Potawatomi warrior named Kichekemit fell dead against the Shawnee chief. Riddled with fifteen buckshot, the interpreter Andrew Clark leaned against a tree. He drew his blanket around him and awaited death. Wahsikegaboe collapsed with half his head blasted off…Crouched together behind a large fallen tree, Tecumseh confided to Billy Caldwell, ‘We must leave here; they are advancing on us.’ Caldwell ran. That was the last he saw of Tecumseh. Perhaps Tecumseh had no intention of running but wanted Caldwell to get away safely. In any event, the Shawnee chief stood up and started forward. And then in the swirling, smoke-choked melee, a Kentuckian lifted his musket loaded with buck and ball. He trained it on an Indian wearing a turban topped with a single ostrich feather and squeezed the trigger…”
- Peter Cozzens, Tecumseh and the Prophet: The Shawnee Brothers Who Defied a Nation

In The Earth is Weeping, Peter Cozzens produced – in my opinion at least – the single best book I’ve read on the American Indian Wars. Both sweeping and intimate, grippingly written and thoroughly researched, it managed to land powerful truths without any didacticism.

Just about the only problem I had with The Earth is Weeping is that it only covered the years from 1866 to 1890, leaving prior decades of brutal warfare and conquest untouched. In Tecumseh and the Prophet, Cozzens starts to fill in those blank spaces, tackling another momentous period in the three-hundred year struggle for a continent.

For obvious reasons, Tecumseh and the Prophet is not as topically ambitious as The Earth is Weeping. Unlike Cozzens’s earlier work, it is focused on a single tribe – the Shawnee – and two men in particular: the famed war chief Tecumseh; and his one-eyed misfit of a brother Tenskwatawa, who transformed himself into a mystic known to whites as the Prophet. But while the scope is more constrained, Tecumseh and the Prophet proves to be just as much an epic as The Earth is Weeping, gracefully presenting a complex drama in a way that is at once poignant and entertaining.

***

Tecumseh and the Prophet is narrative history executed at the highest level. It proceeds chronologically from the 1760s, around the time of Tecumseh’s birth, to the 1830s, when Tenskwatawa passed away. The setting is the lands known variously as the Old Northwest or the Ohio River Valley, encompassing parts of the current states of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Kentucky.

These bountiful lands – marvelously described by Cozzens – were settled by numerous Indian tribes, including Tecumseh’s Shawnee. Following the American Revolution, however, westward pressure led to fierce conflict and contested cessations. Some tribes tried to make peace with the upstart United States. Others looked to Great Britain – still ensconced to the north, in Canada – thereby throwing themselves into an international game of power politics that stretched all the way back to Europe.

It is in this context that Tecumseh dreamt up the plan that would make him famous: a pan-Indian confederation joining the Shawnee to – among others – the Kickapoo, Potawatomi, Winnebago, and Delaware. In this quest, Tecumseh was aided by Tenskwatawa, who fused Tecumseh’s military stratagem to a spiritual revivalist movement shunning alcohol and other trade goods.

***

Tecumseh is a legendary name in American history. Nevertheless, he has not received nearly the same recognition as great Indian warriors and chiefs of the Trans-Mississippi West, such as Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. Even if you’ve heard of Tecumseh, you might not understand why he loomed so large.

Cozzens does a marvelous job of laying everything out in a coherent manner, while still maintaining the pace of a crack storyteller.

It all begins with Tecumseh, who is brought to vivid life. In this respect, Cozzens is definitely aided by the relative fullness of the historical record. During his brief life, Tecumseh had a lot of contact with the white world, and not always in battle. He became friends with captives, with certain settlers, and with British officers, many of whom left rich remembrances that Cozzens expertly weaves into the tale. This allows for the kind of fully-rounded biography that is not possible with other nineteenth century Indian leaders.

Better than most, Tecumseh recognized the ultimate consequences the woodland tribes faced due to the onslaught of white settlement. He also devised a strategy for halting it, which involved the numerous different tribes – which had often fought each other in the past – uniting as one, while drawing Great Britain into the fray.

Beyond his warmaking, we get to know Tecumseh the politician, Tecumseh the maneuverer, and Tecumseh the indifferent husband and father.

Meanwhile, Cozzens works hard to add dimension to Tenskwatawa, who is often derided as a disfigured and dissolute drunk, and a charlatan to boot. Tecumseh and the Prophet proposes an alternate view, in which the two brothers deserve co-credit for creating and sustaining a movement against long odds, up against a young American Republic just starting to embrace an expansionist ethos.

***

Cozzens does not neglect the other fascinating participants in Tecumseh’s war. He gives nice character sketches of Chief Blue Jacket, Chief Little Turtle of the Miami, and the fascinatingly-erratic Main Poc of the Potawatomi. Cozzens also does a fine job with William Henry Harrison. Today remembered as the shortest-serving of all U.S. Presidents – dying of the sniffles after 32 days in office – Harrison owed his career to his battles with Tecumseh.

In Cozzens’s hands, Harrison is an interestingly contradictory figure. On the one hand, he was capable of treating Tecumseh with honor and dignity, even referring to him as an “uncommon genius.” On the other, Harrison essentially started a war to fulfill his personal goals, and showed exactly how voracious the United States could be when he concluded the Treaty of Fort Wayne, purchasing three million acres from certain tribal leaders for the theft-level price of two cents per acre.

***

Tecumseh and the Prophet is deep and layered. Cozzens spends a good deal of time introducing readers to the Shawnee, describing their customs, culture, and mode of living. Having done much of my reading on the Plains Tribes, I really appreciated this willingness to present the Shawnee on their terms.

From first page to last, Cozzens writes vibrantly, painting word-pictures by describing the forests and rivers, the dress of the Indians, the uniforms of the soldiers, and their smokey, confused, terrifying battles. There is a lot of novelistic detail, but with Cozzens, there are also voluminous endnotes.

I was especially impressed with the lengthy, detailed account Cozzens provides of Tecumseh’s alliance-making. Though he eventually led over a thousand warriors, his pan-Indian confederation never achieved its true aims. Specifically, Tecumseh’s six-month, three-thousand-mile recruiting drive through the Old Southwest – to the Cherokee, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Creeks – ended in failure. Cozzens is at his best in methodically describing Tecumseh’s encounters with these leaders, and the resistance he faced.

***

Tecumseh’s confederation ended in failure. It is hard to see it succeeding, even if he’d managed to bring more tribes into the fold. Sheer numbers were against him, an unending flood of American settlers in the east, their eyes set firmly on the west. At the same time, Tecumseh’s fickle British ally was busy breaking its own set of promises and charting a new course to avoid friction with the United States.

In short, Tecumseh and the Prophet does not suggest that Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa might have succeeded, if only they’d caught a few breaks. Instead, its emphasis remains on its protagonists, two doomed visionaries faced with an impossible task, who put up the fight of their lives, using all the tools at their disposal, including their own unique gifts.

[Theo Logos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tecumseh and the Prophet tells the history of the Indian’s Last Stand against the encroachment of the Long Knives (Americans) in defense of their way of life and lands in the Old Northwest Territory (now the American heartland). These Shawnee brothers, Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa, built the final Pan Indian Confederation, a collection of multiple tribes determined to defend Indian autonomy, lands, and way of life. This history records that noble failure in all its heroic and tragic detail.

Previous treatments of this subject have focused solely on Tecumseh, either marginalizing or ignoring the work of Tenskwatawa, his younger brother. By linking them together, and focusing on the Pan Indian religious movement created by Tenskwatawa in his role as the Prophet, Cozzens restores the necessary perspective for understanding the life work of the Shawnee brothers.

I was previously familiar with the author, Peter Cozzens, from reading books he had written on Civil War battles. In those, I had found him to be a meticulous researcher who was comprehensive in his detail, but a rather dry writer. So I was pleasantly surprised to discover in this work that he had found a narrative voice that makes his book as gripping as it is informative. Though as meticulously informative as ever, his story never drags, and remains interesting to its tragic end.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://thebestbiographies.com/2021/0...

Peter Cozzens’s recent book “Tecumseh and the Prophet: The Shawnee Brothers Who Defied a Nation” was published in the fall of 2020. Cozzens is a retired U.S. Foreign Service Officer and the author or editor of nearly two-dozen books covering the Civil War and US-Indian relations during America’s westward expansion. He is probably best-known for “The Earth is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West.”

For more than twenty years the classic biography of Tecumseh (~1768-1813) has been John Sugden’s “Tecumseh: A Life.” But biographies of the Shawnee chief have traditionally minimized or ignored the role his younger brother Tenskwatawa (1775-1836) played in creating and maintaining a substantial pan-Indian confederacy. This is an oversight Cozzens successfully cures in this compelling dual biography.

Readers will find most of the book’s 435-page narrative engaging, informative and colorful. It is also the product of meticulous research, conveying a remarkably deep understanding of Indian affairs: their history, culture, politics, daily life, inter-tribal conflicts, the impact of alcohol and disease on their communities, and their relationships with the US, Britain and France.

No one will walk away from this book without a keen understanding of Tecumseh, his younger brother (a debaucherous rascal turned spiritual prophet) and their decade-long efforts to restrain America’s westward march. Their partnership ended with Tecumseh’s untimely death at the Battle of the Thames; the Prophet then lingered for more than two decades as an impoverished anachronism.

Some of the most notable features of Cozzens’s book include a nice introduction to William Henry Harrison, a vivid description of Tecumseh’s siege of Fort Meigs which will remind some readers of the best accounts of Ulysses Grant’s Civil War campaigns, and an especially useful Appendix summarizing the dozens of tribes (and subgroups) encountered in the text.

But as captivating as the narrative proves to be, this is a biography that most readers will need to sip and savor, not gulp. The story line involves countless names – of individuals, tribes, towns and settlements – which will be unfamiliar to many and which can prove quite difficult to keep straight.

In addition, while Cozzens periodically injects a helpful “30,000 foot” perspective to provide his audience with clarifying context, much of the book is tightly focused on Tecumseh’s (or his brother’s) immediate sphere. As a result it is easy to become so fixated on their fields-of-view that one loses much of the “big picture.”

Overall, however, “Tecumseh and the Prophet” proves itself an unusually insightful and wonderfully entertaining dual biography of Tecumseh and his brother. Readers lacking a fluent facility for 18th-century North American Indian affairs may find the narrative complex or confusing at times. But patience and perseverance are well-rewarded and this biography provides both luminous storytelling and penetrating history.

Overall rating: 4¼ stars

[Edward Gwynne · Rating 5 out of 5]

My brother and I now have a booktube called The Brothers Gwynne. Check it out! The Brothers Gwynne

'Our lives are in the hands of the Great Spirit. We are determined to defend our lands, and if it is his will, we wish to leave our bones upon them.'

Wow. Cozzens is truly an incredible non-fiction writer and this account of the great Shawnee chief Tecumseh is a work of brilliance. It is thoroughly and meticulously detailed, with an immense amount of readability as well as heart. It is immersive in a way that not many non0fiction reads are.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

William Henry Harrison, governor of the Indiana Territory and future president writes of Tecumseh, ”...one of those uncommon geniuses which spring up occasionally to produce revolutions and overturn the established order of things. If it were not for the vicinity of the United States, he would, perhaps, be the founder of an empire that would rival in glory that of Mexico or Peru”

Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa. At a young age their Chief Cornstalk is killed. Their father Puckeshinwau is killed a few years later. Then their foster father Chief Blackfish is killed. Next, their older brother and accomplished warrior Cheeseekau is killed. All at the hands of white settlers and the militias enforcing the land theft. Their world is turned upside down. A veritable shit storm. Such is life for an ‘Indian’ in the Ohio Valley between 1774 and 1814. Generations of potential leaders gone. Tecumseh himself would fall at the hands of the white man. But not before putting up one hell of a fight.

The name Tecumseh is known by many even today. Undoubtedly he’s a cot damn legend… one of the great indigenous leaders of his time, with an adeptness at diplomacy and the skills to get busy with the tomahawk when diplomacy failed. I think people should know his story, especially those who live in any of the ‘midwest’ states…and extra especially Ohioans. While technically this is a biography of two Kispoko Shawnee brothers and their fight for their homelands (perhaps not ironically, located near the present-day city of Columbus, OH), in reality it’s about the broader struggle for the whole midwest (what was then called the Northwest). That includes Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. This is really the story of the dozens of tribes who called those places home and their struggle to keep that homeland. The Ohio Valley was a crucible… amazingly dramatic, heroic and tragic indigenous true stories are found here. That’s material rife with some high drama and Peter Cozzens mostly delivers the goods.

But why another book about Tecumseh? Surely there have been many great ones written in the past. Like maybe Allan Eckert’s A Sorrow in Our Heart, or James Thom’s Panther in the Sky or John Sugden’s Tecumseh: A Life. Peter Cozzens addresses this in the Preface. He’s read just about every book on Tecumseh. He praises John Sugden’s work as the best biography. He draws on that text considerably, especially for Tecumseh’s younger years. But Cozzens notes that in most books, his brother Tenskwatawa is mostly cast aside as a drunkard and overall ne'er-do-well. Part of Cozzens’ goal is to correct that historical narrative. He shows that Tenskwatawa played a significant role in the fight for the Ohio Valley. Also known as the Shawnee Prophet... he authored a philosophical, religious and cultural movement which helped to unify many tribes under a common cause.

The research is on point. It may be this book’s biggest strength. Author S.C. Gwynne calls this “one of the best pieces of Native American history I have read”. The first hundred pages acts as a crash test on everything about Shawnees in particular and eastern woodland natives in general. These pages are dense. This covers everything from cuisine, clothing, gender roles, vision quests, seasonal dances (Bread Dance in the Spring + Corn Dance in the fall), wigwams, hunting practices, cultural ideas about sex, different clans, medicine bundles, eastern woodland warfare, the practice of scalping and torture, captive taking and adoption ceremonies…you name it. I think this section is best read slooowly, otherwise there’s no way to retain even a small portion of the information thrown at you.

A quick note on sources. Cozzens does a great job in covering his bases, reading all types of books, memoirs, officer reports, newspaper articles of the day, journal articles, even a few indigenous accounts as related to white authors, and also accounts of some of Tecumseh’s white friends, including adopted Shawnee captives who spent years fighting alongside him. This is my first Peter Cozzens book but from other reviews I’ve read on GR, this seems to be a strength of his. Detailed research. Gotta love that in a historian.

I’ve heard the saying every good story needs a villain. In this case, that role is filled by Gov. William Henry Harrison, who was admittedly following orders from President Jefferson. Sure, if it wasn’t for Harrison, it would have been someone else. But history is acted out by people, and I think for everyone’s sake, we should remember some of these people to hold them accountable, even posthumously! And obviously to hopefully learn from what happened. Anyways, he was the main guy prosecuting the land theft and later, the war on the Northwestern front. Yes he was the Governor, but this was back in those early days (yet not so long ago!) when the Governor of the Indiana Territory didn’t preside over many settlers or soldiers, so he had to be hands-on.

We learn about the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which established the whole region as a Territory of the United States. Years later, Cozzens writes how Harrison introduces a change to a land bill “that would flood the western country with new settlers faster than the government, or the Indians, possibly could have expected. Harrison’s powers were vast. He appointed the territorial legislature and filled the judgeships and exercised near-absolute authority” over the population (pg. 132).

Jefferson’s Enclosures

It was fascinating to learn about President Jefferson’s plans to capture native lands. I’ve read the following statement made by him in 1786: “It may be regarded as certain that not a foot of land will ever be taken from the Indians without their consent. The sacredness of their rights is felt by all thinking persons in America as much as in Europe”. People were obviously aware of right and wrong even in those times. The situation is about as blatant as can be.

Cozzens discusses some of Jefferson’s motives. Ultimately, he envisioned an ‘Empire of Liberty’ and “only by moving westward, Jefferson believed, could Americans maintain the republican society of independent yeoman farmers that he idealized and not descend into the black swirl of urban misery that blighted much of the Old World.” (pg. 143).

We even get to read Jefferson’s journal entries where he outlines his plan to dispossess the first nations of their land and the key role of debt in that plan. “We wish to draw the Indians to agriculture… When they withdraw themselves to the culture of a small piece of land, they will perceive how useless to them are their extensive forests, and be willing to pare them off in exchange for necessaries for their farms and families. To promote this disposition to exchange lands… we shall push our trading houses and be glad to see them run up debt because when these debts get beyond what the Indians can pay, they will become willing to lop them off by cession of lands… In this way our settlements will gradually circumscribe and approach the Indians, and they will either incorporate with us as citizens of the United States or remove beyond the Mississippi… Should any tribe be foolhardy enough to take up the hatchet, the seizing the whole country of that tribe and drive them across the Mississippi as the only condition of peace would be an example to others and a furtherance of our final consolidation.”

Cozzens notes that “those who rejected ‘civilization’ would be removed west of the Mississippi, where they could hunt to their hearts’ delight until the day came when the whites wanted to settle the country that Jefferson would obtain in the Louisiana Purchase. Then the cycle would presumably repeat itself. The Indians would either assimilate or lose their land” (pg. 143). I don’t think there was an ‘or’. They were losing the land no matter what, so all they had left was to fight back. The option was to either fight or lose the land.

Harrison did much of the dirty work. These were some of his tactics. Outright bribery for land cessions, or “negotiating with tribes or bands whose claim to an area was weak or nonexistent; they would be more inclined to trade land for annuities than would those with stronger rights to a region”. He would employ the ever reliable divide-and-rule tactics. “By rewarding the Potawatomis and Delawares with $500 annual annuities for land that belonged to the Miamis, Harrison also marginalized Little Turtle” (pg. 229). He ‘purchased’ land often for less than a penny an acre when the going rate was worth six hundred times that amount! He would argue to various chiefs that annuities are much better than the land. What land they couldn’t obtain via those shady means, they got through outright force. Cozzens notes how the U.S. often went into peace talks in bad faith…just to frame the argument that they tried diplomacy first. We hear from Secretary of War Henry Knox, “we expected nothing else and had gone into the negotiations only to prove to all our citizens that peace was unattainable on terms which any of them would admit” (pg. 109).

Add to that other dirty tactics like “substituting addictive rum for the muskets, utensils, tools, cloth, and silver ornaments the Shawnees preferred when sober. Shawnee chiefs begged the Pennsylvania government to enforce antirum laws, but Quaker authorities were powerless to stop the enfeebling liquor trade” (pg. 34).

A Land Worth Fighting For

It was interesting to learn how recently many of these present-day states were almost completely empty of white settlers. In 1778 Kentucky was filling up fast with settlers. By 1797, Eastern Indiana was completely free of whites. In 1805, all of the Michigan Territory was overwhelmingly Indian Country and as late as 1810 Illinois was a country mostly free of settlers even decades after the U.S. Revolutionary war.

Tenskwatawa preached to his fellow tribesmen to forgo all white cultural items, whether that be food that was cooked by whites or food not of their native culture, or alcohol…they were expected to give all items of white clothing to the first white person they encountered. Everything except guns and powder, which he confessed was required for self preservation. His brother Tecumseh on the other hand, would come to learn much about his adversaries. Even though from his perspective growing up, the whites brought nothing but death and misery to his people, he would learn to speak English words by nine years old and would eventually get fluent. After many years, from about 1797 to 1808, there grew to be a simmering tension between settlers and the indigenous nations of the Great Lakes area. There was an unofficial boundary between them…the Ohio river. “The Americans would have to either respect the Ohio River as the boundary between Indian and whites or accept perpetual war as the price for violating it. ‘After two successful engagements in which a great deal of blood has been spilt,’ reported the British Indian agent Alexander McKee, ‘the Indians will not give quietly up by negotiation what they have been contending for with their lives since the commencement of these troubles” (pg. 89-90).

Tecumseh grew to have many white friends among the white settlers who abided by the Ohio River boundary. He would stop by their homes and often be invited to dinner in their cabins. But once an increasing number of settlers and frontiersmen started crossing, conflicts ensued. The Shawnee brothers saw the writing on the wall. They knew they would have to fight for their lands.

Cozzens writes that “few whites ever understood the truly democratic nature of woodland Indian government. Chiefs possessed influence commensurate with the respect they enjoyed and their ability to provide for their people. During the best of times, noted a French observer, among the Indians there existed only ‘voluntary subordination. Each person is free to do as he pleases.’ That said, the Shawnees generally deferred to proven leaders” (pg. 39-40). It was interesting to learn that when Tecumseh traveled the southwest, he found that metis chiefs (half white), “although committed to preserving what remained of Indian lands, many had taken up American ways, including a commitment to individual land ownership and accumulation of wealth, over traditional Indian egalitarianism” (pg 264).

This traditional egalitarianism became a key tenet of the Shawnee Prophet’s doctrine. He goes on a vision quest and returns advocating indigenous unity and noting that “a return to communal living was essential. Indians who accumulated ‘wealth and ornaments’ would ‘crumble into dust,’ but those who shared their possessions with fellow believers would die happy. Communal virtues also dictated that the ‘young should always cherish and support the elderly and infirm’” (pg. 159-160). It's clear that many First Nations held anti capitalist beliefs long before Marx was born. Learning about these lifeways is certainly not some type of liberal education 'brainwashing' that many claim…it’s about learning and reclaiming our histories. We don’t need Marx for that.

Tecumseh’s Amazing Travels

I’m always fascinated with the idea of Pan Indian Alliances. There were always attempts to create such an alliance ever since the threat of European colonization emerged. Metacom tried to create one in present-day New England back in the 1660s. Neolin and Blue Jacket tried the same in the Ohio Valley in the late 1790s. Red Cloud attempted to do so in the mid-to-late 1800s. We can view the Haudenosaunee confederacy as a type of Pan Indian alliance. But no one was able to gather more tribes together under one cause than the Shawnee brothers Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa.

Tecumseh did his work via big councils with many tribal elders, attempting to convince them to join their cause, against the ever encroaching United States. He realized that the only way to effectively fight the long knives was a united front stretching from the northern states Michigan, through the midwest, Ohio, Indiana, down through Kentucky, all the way through Alabama in the south. Just think of the amount of traveling he did…no plains, trains or automobiles. Tecumseh was all over the midwest and the south. Now that’s determination! Throughout this book, we find him in Mississippi, in Georgia, fighting alongside the Chickamauga near Nashville in Tennessee, fighting U.S. soldiers in Ontario, and many more places. Key events in states like Pennsylvania, West VA and VA are discussed. There is truly a wide scope to this story.

This leads me to the thought that the idea of “tribes wiping eachother out” is crazy. You might be surprised how often this is repeated by white folks. And often not in a malicious way at all. Just last year a Russian friend told me “but weren’t the tribes wiping eachother out”. I asked if he knew of one single tribe that was wiped out. You can’t name a single one! Some people bring up the Mandans, yet they’re still here. Or the Hurons, yet the Wyandots/Wendats played a huge role in regional politics decades after their supposed extermination. The main reason most people bring up the Wendat is because of the Iroquois wars of conquest, which lasted from 1640 to 1701, when a formal peace was reached between the two sides. That’s not to say that the six decades of war wasn’t a huge event in regional native politics (especially for the Shawnees and Wendats). But we have to realize that the very reason the Haudenosaunee were moving west is due to depletion of game due to overhunting (beaver fur trade for global markets) and proximity to white settlements in the northeast.

Similarly, I’ve seen a video of a conservative white guy supposedly “schooling” a well meaning white liberal professor of Native American history. The conservative pundit said something to the effect of, “how can we give land back when the natives couldn’t even agree on whose land it belonged to. Look at the Comanches and Apaches, who fought over the same land in Texas. So who would inherit Texas if we give the ‘land back’”. The liberal professor was flustered while the (undoubtedly white) audience was clapping at the pundits' argument. It’s all a part of the same argument…the natives were constantly warring over the same piece of land so that no one holds rightful stewardship over the land. That argument greatly simplifies the issue. There were many tribes in Texas…what is called Texas today is a huge land, bigger than many European countries. There were the Caddos of East Texas, Karankawas and Atakapas along the Texas coast, Jumanos along the Rio Grande, Coahuiltecans in South Texas and Wichitas in the Panhandle. The Comanches and Apaches came relatively late in history, and even then they only occupied an area within Texas, not the whole state…although Comacheria grew to encompass most of it at one point. Furthermore, it was only the eastern Apache tribes (Lipan and Mescalero) who had conflicts with the Comanches. All the Western Apaches, and the Jicarillas and Chiricahuas had nothing to do with those conflicts (they settled in present-day Arizona, New Mexico and northern Mexico). All that to say that this wasn’t a simple case of…Apache here. Now Comanche comes. They Fight. Apache goes away.

We can’t forget that these inter tribal conflicts worsened with the arrival of settler colonialism, as natives were fighting for an ever smaller piece of land. Then horse and gun culture arrived and exacerbated the situation (1700-1850)...only about a 150 year period, out of a history of thousands of years. And yet the narrative persists. And it’s history books like this that help show the true story. We see how Tecumseh was able to travel to distant lands populated by tribes with different languages, yet he was still safe and able to hold council with various chiefs. “Apart from the sultry climate, Tecumseh would have found little that was foreign to him during his southern sojourn. He still counted several Shawnee relations living with the Creeks, and Creeks frequently visited the Shawnees north of the Ohio river. From his time with the Chickamaugas, and his romantic involvement with one of their women, Tecumseh certainly knew the Cherokee culture intimately. The Choctaw and Chickasaw way of life was fundamentally the same as that of the Cherokees and Creeks” (pg. 264).

(Continued in the Comments Section)...

[Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a dual biography of Tecumseh and his lesser known brother Tenskwatawa who is also know as The Prophet. The book is well researched and written making it an interesting read.  The primary focus on is on the brother's attempts to slow down and repel american expansion into northwestern Ohio during the late 1700's and early 1800's. They were not successful with one dying on the battlefield and the other dying poor and alone. This is the first book, to my knowledge, that gives equal attention to both brothers. Others that I have read have focused on Tecumseh giving passing attention to his brother and the role that he played in their struggle to preserve the Shawnee nation's land. This is a good book for those who have not read much on the brothers or their struggle to preserve their heritage.

I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon and my nonfiction book review blog.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 7th-grade US History teacher loved to present Boogie-Men. Among his favorite? Tecumseh. According to him, had Tecumseh's blood-thirsty dreams come true, all white Americans would have been pushed off the edge of the continent back in to the Atlantic. I didn't believe any of this then, but, in the early 90s, as my understanding of multiculturalism was still largely confined to "exotic holidays and really, they're just like us!" and my sense of indigenous people was heartily confined to the "noble savages" perspective, so I lacked a good ability to understand just how and why he was so wrong.

Cozzens's book would have been a great way for me to argue back.

It doesn't pretend that the Shawnee Brothers wouldn't, indeed, have happily seen invaders disappear from the continent. It doesn't ignore or excuse traditions of prisoner mutilation and torture. But it does paint a thoughtful and complex picture of how two leaders worked to try and build a different, and, I think, better vision of the world that could be. Tecumseh, it turns out, spoke English and befriended his white neighbors. His brother, after Tecumseh's death, endeavored to be a survivor. And both deserve to be remembered as Americans who aren't coming for all of us in the night, but as insurrectionists who, in the end, asked simply that the ideals of life, liberty, and property be respected for Indigenous as well as colonizing people; or at the very least not to the expense of the former for the naked benefit of the latter.

[Jerome Otte · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rich, well-researched and unsentimental dual biography of Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa.

Cozzens ably covers Tecumseh rise to power as Shawnee chief and his diplomatic and military accomplishments, and the Prophet’s journey from alcoholic to a preacher with a massive audience. He covers why the brothers were unable to gain a large following within their own tribe and why they had more success with a pan-Indian confederacy. He also covers the role played by international politics, the conflicts between America and Britain, and the expansion of American settlers in the Old Northwest.

Cozzens argues that the Prophet was equally important as Tecumseh, but on reading the book, Tecumseh still strikes you as the more dynamic and interesting of the two, and his portrait of the Prophet as Tecumseh’s equal doesn’t entirely convince. Still, Cozzens does a great job fleshing out the Prophet, who is often depicted in some works as a deluded con man.

The narrative is thorough, balanced and insightful, and Cozzens’ coverage of the battles is vivid. He does a great job bringing his subjects to life. A lively, compelling, well-written and comprehensive work.

[Kody Dibble · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tecumseh and the Prophet: The Shawnee Brothers Who Defied a Nation is historical fiction depicting the birth, life & death of both Tecumseh and his brother Lalawethika/Tenskwatawa. The book does a great job introducing us to these legendary figures. It deepens the hold by providing us insight into what these two brothers believed about themselves and the Indian Nation as a whole.


The name "Tecumseh" in Shawnee means "Panther Across The Sky", Panther's are most associated with War in Shawnee society. From a young age Tecumseh proved his shrewdness was that of a Panther with successful hunts for wild game. He was even able to join war parties and councils although he didn't develop the luster for it until he was older.

Tenskwatawa or eventually known by both Shawnee and whites as "The Prophet" to me was almost more fascinating then Tecumseh. Tecumseh is a traditionally intuitive, war-god of a Shawnee, while his brother is well... Tenskwatawa to me is interesting because I believe he truly (eventually) was trying to both become a assimilate of white culture AND preserve Shawnee tradition. From this books perspective, Tenskwatawa stopped harassing women, drinking whiskey and lying all in the same divine intervention. With this, he founded "Prophetstown" where for a good while the Shawnee and other tribes praised their version of God (The Great Spirit). This unity was most likely KEY for their continued survival and mental health during this period of time.

The death of Tecumseh however and the lack of any real unity in the Indian Nations led to a sadder story. It seems that Tecumseh in my opinion was defeated not by military style war maneuvers. Instead, his defeat lied in the fact that others like Chief Black Hoof, had already assimilated into white culture. This along with changing factions of tribal identities within American culture led to the disunity.

Tecumseh and the Prophet: The Shawnee Brothers Who Defied a Nation is a long, tedious but riveting title. Cozzens does a great job at simulating the actual events of these two's lives. However, historical fiction in general (And especially the details of this book) often promote a sensualism that I try to remove myself from. For example, Cozzens, an author of other military-style books uses military talk throughout this book. Nothing is wrong with that, but it is speculation and truly from the mind of Cozzens not from the Shawnee Kispoko (War leaders). Who knows how these battles really went? Especially the Battle of Thames where "most" believe Tecumseh died. But as to who shot him, his burial, we do not have a real historical reference for, only imagination and possibility.

[Online-University of-the-Left · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book. Prophetstown as Tecumseh and his brother's 'Yenan' for organizing the Red Confederacy to hold the Northwest (the old one) as their homeland. They lose in the end, but the effort was heroic. It also compels us to look at the War of 1812 in a new way.

[Charles Haywood · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always been aware of the great Shawnee Indian war chief Tecumseh. I grew up within walking distance of the site of his confederacy’s defeat, by William Henry Harrison at the Battle of Tippecanoe, and often visited the battlefield as a child. Tecumseh himself wasn’t at the battle; he was far away, trying to raise Indian allies. The battle was instead lost by his inconstant brother, Tenskwatawa, known as the Prophet, with whom Tecumseh had a fraught, but close, relationship. In this book, Peter Cozzens expertly and evocatively traces the lives of these once-famous brothers, the last of the eastern woodlands Indians of North America to mount an effective challenge to the expanding United States.

Cozzens, though the author of many books, is best known for an outstanding 2016 work on the Indian Wars in the West, The Earth is Weeping. That book, focused on the nineteenth century, did not cover the defeats of the eastern Indians. Here Cozzens turns to the earlier period, roughly 1750 to 1820, in which the Indians of the Ohio Valley lost their lands. Before 1750 the Europeans had already broken the power of the Six Nations (of whom the Iroquois are the best known), thereby consolidating control over the Eastern Seaboard. British, and soon enough American, settlers kept pushing west, despite promises made to the Indians, and the resulting conflicts are the topic of this book.

Tecumseh was born in 1768 into a division of the larger Shawnee tribe. The Shawnee were an Algonquin tribe—Indian ethnography is complex, but the two major groupings of North American eastern woodlands Indians were the Algonquin and the Iroquois, who, broadly speaking, were ancient enemies. The Shawnee were then resident in southern Ohio (where my grandparents lived, and I often visited Shawnee State Park with them, giving me more childhood doses of Tecumseh). They had not been in Ohio for long; Shawnees were peripatetic, in their culture and as the result of decades of attacks from the Iroquoian tribes. The French and Indian War, that is, the Seven Years War, had ended in 1763, with the British defeating the French and taking Canada. The Shawnee did not participate in that conflict, in which the Six Nations did actively participate. This was the first major involvement of the Indians in the wars of the Europeans. The core Indian interest was to maintain their own lands, something that, in retrospect, was always doomed to fail. After that big war, small Indian wars continued off and on, notably Pontiac’s War, which ended in 1766.

All the Indian wars followed the same basic pattern. The government, whether the Crown or later the United States, would promise or agree to a boundary line, beyond which white settlement would not be allowed and the Indians could lead their traditional lives. White men would ignore this—some combination of, as Cozzens says, “hardscrabble farmers in search of better land, fugitives from justice, and the congenitally restless of slack moral fiber.” The Indians would become fed up and slaughter dozens or hundreds of white men, women, and children, often in the most gruesome ways. (Daniel Boone’s sixteen-year-old son was captured and tortured to death, for example.) The white man would react by organizing punitive military expeditions to kill Indians, in usually, but not always, somewhat less gruesome ways, and drive the Indians off the land.

If there is a crucial fact about the Indian Wars, and in general the relationship between Indians and Europeans, it is that the North American Indian population was shockingly low, and always had been. When Tecumseh was born, a mere fifteen hundred Shawnees claimed most of what is now the southern half of Ohio. True, disease had earlier decimated many of the tribes (although the idea that the Europeans deliberately gave them smallpox is probably a myth—no matter, they got that, and other diseases, anyway; Tecumseh himself survived smallpox), and we don’t know how many Indians there were before the Europeans arrived. But likely not that many more than later—the eastern Indians were primarily hunter-gatherers, and the land simply didn’t support huge numbers, as can be seen by frequent references to game totally disappearing, and starvation looming, when any sizeable group of Indians gathered for even a few weeks. This problem was exacerbated by white overhunting in the borderlands, and by the fur and skin trade—as Cozzens notes, Indians began to kill just to have something to trade for alcohol, of which more later. Even at the height of their power, in the mid-seventeenth century, the Iroquoian Confederacy, aggressively expansionist and ruling over a vast area of what is today northeast and upper-midwest America, totaled no more than 50,000 people. Cozzens estimates that the total Indian population of the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley in 1768 was approximately 60,000—at the same time the thirteen British colonies had two million inhabitants. Moreover, the Indians, resource poor, deliberately kept their birth rate low (though they did not practice infanticide). Thus, they could never have hoped to compete with the white man in numbers.

Even with their small numbers, the Indians mostly competently played a losing hand. Their only real possible move was to involve themselves in the wars among the French, British, and Americans—the Long Knives, as the Algonquins called the last—and hope to side with the winning team, with the expectation they would then be left in peace. Thus, despite no real interest in the white man’s wars, they were inevitably forced by circumstance to join. That, man-for-man, Indians were far better warriors than the whites, and they were quick to adopt European technology, could not compensate for their small numbers and democratic method of fighting, “every man his own chief.” Indians often won battles when allied with regular European troops, or alone when fighting poorly trained troops, but usually lost against any sizeable European force that maintained order.

Tecumseh’s father died in 1774, when Tecumseh was five, at the Battle of Point Pleasant, in what is now West Virginia. This was one of numerous skirmishes in Dunmore’s War, a brief but brutal war caused, predictably, by Virginians pushing west. The British then formally set the Ohio River as the boundary of the Indian lands. This boundary was a key fact of Tecumseh’s childhood, and its inevitable breaching by the white man the ground of his life’s work. His early years were spent near today’s Chillicothe; Cozzens does an excellent job of sketching the culture of the Shawnee, which we will discuss later.

The years of Tecumseh’s youth and early adulthood involved the further splintering of the Shawnee, some of whom moved west, and the grinding advance of the white man, sometimes in arms, but more often with a toxic joint offering of alcohol to dull the Indians and money to bribe tribal chiefs to sell land for a tiny fraction of its true worth. In 1782 the uneasy peace ended. In the Gnadenhutten Massacre, Pennsylvania militia, responding to Indian raids, killed nearly a hundred Delawares, men, women, and children (who were completely uninvolved in the raids, and in fact were farming Christians). The Shawnees and other Algonquins went on the warpath, killing hundreds of white settlers, and fighting pitched battles. At the Battle of Blue Licks, in what is today Kentucky (and is considered one of the last battles of the Revolutionary War), they (along with their allies and some British rangers), killed sixty-seven Kentucky militia. (Among those were another son of Daniel Boone; no wonder Boone wasn’t a big fan of the Indians. But then, who even knows today who Daniel Boone was?) George Rogers Clark, a regular army officer in charge of the Kentucky militia, responded with organized expeditions that pushed the Shawnee out of southern Ohio, which was promptly overrun with American settlers.

Tecumseh moved north too, although as a young, unattached warrior he ranged widely, and he participated in various skirmishes and fights, as well as piracy against Ohio River settler flatboats. But fewer than a thousand Shawnee remained east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio. The rest moved to Missouri, or to Creek country in the south, or to join the Chickamaugas who lived on the Tennessee River, near today’s Chattanooga. For a while, Tecumseh, and his brothers, visited Louisiana, then Tennessee. He eventually returned to the Ohio Valley, however, and took part in the crushing 1791 defeat of Arthur St. Clair’s chaotic expedition against the Ohio Indians, which, in the usual pattern, was followed a few years later, in 1794, by “Mad Anthony” Wayne’s destruction of a large group of Indians at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, where Tecumseh also fought. Tecumseh gradually raised his profile and attracted followers, mostly aggressive young men and those who wanted to maintain the traditional Indian life, as many of the tribes became less warlike and dependent on annuities and other handouts. He and his extended family moved to today’s eastern Indiana, maintaining reasonably good relations with the local whites (helped by that Tecumseh spoke some English).

Some years passed, and the Indians south of the Great Lakes continued their slow decline. Harsh winters, vanishing game, American pressure, and alcoholism told on them. Then Tenskwatawa, Tecumseh’s younger brother, regarded as a useless, drunk buffoon (he had shot his own eye out as a child), suddenly claimed to have received a series of visions giving him divine revelation. He informed their small Shawnee village that the Great Spirit had told him that to gain heaven Indians must give up alcohol, and all the white man’s ways, and from this base he developed a new syncretic religious doctrine, with bits and pieces of earlier Indian mysticisms, Christianity, and Shawnee culture.

Tenskwatawa’s religion was only the latest in a series of Indian religious revivals. A Delaware, Neolin, had preached a similar set of doctrines in the 1760s, which was adopted in part by the Ottawa war chief Pontiac to fuel his eponymous war. In the Prophet’s doctrine, there were two opponents: Americans and witches. As far as Americans, however, Tenskwatawa’s doctrine wasn’t militaristic, but particularistic. Despite American fears, he did not, at first, preach going on the warpath. As far as witches, Cozzens frequently mentions the woodland Indian obsession with witches. Very often supposed witches, usually elderly chiefs whom younger men wanted to move out or unmarried women with enemies, were tortured and killed; the Prophet eagerly participated in these killings as a judge. You won’t read that in the sanitized Indian hagiographies they teach schoolchildren as history nowadays.

Almost all the Shawnee immediately converted. Other surrounding Indians were a harder sell, though some took to the new religion, especially Wyandots and Miamis, and many expressed interest, travelling to hear the Prophet speak. Thus, Tenskwatawa quickly became regionally famous, but at this time, around 1806, Tecumseh continued to be obscure—if mentioned at all, mentioned as “the Prophet’s brother.” Nonetheless, those who noticed him observed his charisma, presence, and leadership ability, and his rise to prominence can be dated to this time—perhaps prefigured by the name his parents gave him, which meant “shooting star” or “blazing comet.”

Tensions between the young United States and Great Britain were rising again, primarily the result of the Napoleonic Wars and their impact on American trade. The Indians held frequent conferences with various representatives of the United States, in a complicated dance asking for money and goods, but also reassurances about their land. Meanwhile chiseling agents of the government, including William Henry Harrison, sometime military leader and now governor of the Indiana Territory, steadily ate away at Indian land title by bribing chiefs to sell land at pennies on the dollar. The United States was well aware, though, that if war came with Britain, the Indians might ally with Britain and attempt to retake their lands. And so it happened.

Tecumseh, in the years leading up to open war between Britain and the United States, acted as a Shawnee ambassador, both spreading the message of his brother and trying to create a new political alliance among different contiguous tribes. Indian alliances were notoriously short-term and opportunistic, making this an uphill climb, and in general both of Tecumseh’s messages were received coolly. Moreover, the Americans were aware of these efforts and opposed them, manipulating those Tecumseh sought to persuade with cash and alcohol. The ins and outs of the period 1806 to 1812 are complex, but covered in detail by Cozzens, including a famous and acrimonious council between Harrison and Tecumseh in 1810 at Harrison’s estate in Vincennes.

In 1811 Tecumseh finally achieved greater success recruiting Indian allies, helped by the belief among some Indians that war with the Americans was inevitable, and also by the Great Comet of 1811, visible for five months and sold by Tecumseh as an omen of their coming victory under his leadership. Tecumseh even made a long southern journey, trying and failing to convince the Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Cherokee, in today’s Mississippi and Alabama, to join his confederacy. Cozzens casts Tecumseh as a firm believer in his brother’s faith, a matter of historical dispute, but this was primarily a political recruiting effort—the Prophet’s message never resonated much beyond the Prophet himself. Yet we should remember that this effort was nearly unprecedented; Tecumseh was a visionary, the rare man who can see and act beyond the constraints of his upbringing and culture, seeing what has to be done and doing it.

Meanwhile, the Indians Tecumseh had already recruited, Shawnees . . . [review completes as first comment.]

[Josh Liller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book, chronicling the lives of one of the most famous Native Americans of all time and his brother, forms a loose trilogy with with The Earth Is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West and A Brutal Reckoning: Andrew Jackson, the Creek Indians, and the Epic War for the American South. This book lacks the sweeping epic feel of the former and the tragic spiral into bloody cataclysm of the latter, but it's still a solid book.

The first parts of the book intertwines the story of the brothers' youth with the early attempts at Native American confederacies in the Old Northwest, from Pontiac's Rebellion through the Battle of Fallen Timbers. The last part covers the War of 1812 including Tecumseh's death, and his brother's life after the war. These are strong bookends to the story.

Where the narrative suffers is the middle section, covering the intervening 18 years. Cozzens covers Tecumseh's efforts to build native alliances and his related travels and, in an explicitly stated goal, gives more attention to Tenskwatawa's role as the Shawnee Prophet. The speeches and attempts at persuading other tribes, and the suspicions of William Henry Harrison and others, grow a bit repetitive and tiresome. I'm not sure this necessarily the author's fault, but rather the events themselves.

What surprised me most is how the Shawnee brothers never achieved more than moderate success. They are witnesses then protagonists, but they lived earnest lives of tragic futility. Tenskwatawa's religious teachings were not widely accepted. Tecumseh's message of unity often fell on deaf ears. They were both consistently opposed by certain chiefs and unable to control many of those sympathetic to their cause. Most notable of the rogue elements is Main Poc, whom I don't think I had heard of before this book. Only with outbreak of open war between the United States and Great Britain did Tecumseh succeed in leading the largest coalition of Native American warriors, and then only briefly before it melted away. Tecumseh's legendary status comes off as largely a product of the War of 1812, eclipsing Tenskwatawa only in hindsight. It feels a bit strange to say, but after reading this book I think Tecumseh is kind of overrated.

Recommended.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tecumseh is, well, he's fascinating. As a Shawnee chief, he led his people in a fight against the sprawling encroachment of the "Long Knives," which was the term used by Indigenous folk to describe the gathering storm of European immigration and colonization. It was, of course, not successful, but Tecumseh's call to resistance was completely correct. The failure to mobilize unified resistance among native people against encroaching "Americans" was ultimately catastrophic. Despite his fierce, bloody resistance, Tecumseh's reputation as an honorable opponent remains.

The book also explores the role of Tenskwatawa, his brother, the "Prophet," who it aims...semi-successfully...to rehabilitate his less than stellar historical record. He still comes across as less than competent, a dissembling, manipulating coward.

If you buy the "noble savage" myth that has peculiarly resurfaced among privileged progressives, you're going to have trouble with this book. Because indigenous peoples are as complex as any human being, and a whitewashed view of their "lifeways" isn't present in this book. Reading how prisoners were treated is, well, you're going to need a strong stomach. Americans don't come across particularly well, either, as Cozzens doesn't pull his punches about the racism, ignorance, and avararice that drove much of our conflict with indigenous folk.

The book can also be a little relentless, as battle follows skirmish follows parley, and there comes a point about 375 pages in where I went, Lord have mercy, more killing?

A three point seven five, and a great way to get to know a significant figure in American history.

[Todd Price · Rating 4 out of 5]

Truly a wonderful new addition to the attempts at biography of the life of Tecumseh. Cozzens is an enjoyable writer and capable historian. He has clearly researched primary source records for his material. As Cozzens himself relates, writing the biography of a prominent Native American like Tecumseh is difficult, given his lack of account for himself, due to an absence of written record among the Shawnee of the 18th and 19th centuries. Cozzens even admits as much, essentially conceding that much of what he wrote of Tecumseh’s early years is conjecture based upon other supporting historical records.

I like Cozzens a great deal. This is my first foray into his writings on non-Civil War history. But his Civil War works are meticulously written, referencing firsthand sources, which I greatly appreciate. Additionally, in his acknowledgments, he recognizes Dr. Colin Calloway as one of his reviewers and confidants for the project. A sagacious move on the part of Cozzens, as in my humble opinion, there is no greater historical authority on Native American history of the Old Northwest in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Despite my praise for Cozzens’ work(and it is genuine), I did find some discrepancies I will outline. The first is regarding the death of Shawnee leader Cornstalk in 1777. Cozzens related that it occurred in Pittsburgh, whereas this event has definitively been shown to occur at Fort Randolph in what was then western Virginia(now Point Pleasant, WV). Cozzens apparently re-released this book a year later under the title “The Warrior and the Prophet”(whereas I read the 2020 release titled “Tecumseh and the Prophet”. I briefly consulted the newer title, sadly to find the same misrepresentation of the location of Cornstalk’s death related there.

A point that may simply have been a misprint, missed by proofreaders is regarding Tecumseh’s birthplace. Cozzens colorfully relates Tecumseh’s visit to the Ohio capital city of Chillicothe in 1807. He states that Tecumseh was born in the vicinity(correct, as has been documented through recent research, particularly that of John Sugden and Colin Calloway, both of whom Cozzens credits as sources). However, he gives a seemingly contradictory statement that Tecumseh’s birthplace was “60 miles” from Chillicothe, yet stated he could have leisurely ridden to the site within an hour on horseback. Again, either this was a mistaken distance, simply not caught during proofreading, or Cozzens is implying that Tecumseh was born at the site of “Old Chillicothe”, another Shawnee town Tecumseh surely lived in later in life, but did not yet exist during the time of his birth in 1768. I feel I am being a bit “picky” here, but combined with a few other factual errors, I felt it was important to include in this review.

Another area of concern for me was regarding Tecumseh’s Shawnee division affiliation. There were 5 Shawnee subdivisions, which Cozzens dutifully and correctly relates as Chillicothe, Kispoko, Mekoche, Pekowi, and Thawekila. However, his narrative seems to offer apparently conflicting claims that Tecumseh was either Kispoko or Pekowi. Historical records clearly demonstrate Tecumseh was Kispoko. That fact alone set the stage for his later break with the Shawnee tribe and Mekoche leadership under Black Hoof, because they maintained that Kispoko members were unqualified for overall tribal positions of leadership, as the head of the Kispoko was strictly a war chief. I will concede that the majority of Cozzens’ work seems to confirm Tecumseh’s Kispoko lineage, but there are 2 or 3 confusing sections in which he seemingly labels Tecumseh a Pekowi.

While I again respect Cozzens’ reliance on primary sources, he seems to do so primarily from the American side. Three of his most widely cited sources are Stephen Ruddell, Anthony Shane, and Tenskwatawa the Prophet. At face value these are invaluable resources. Ruddell was a youthful companion and close friend of Tecumseh, while Shane had a close relationship as well as an adopted member of the tribe. Tenskwatawa speaks for himself, as Tecumseh’s brother and co-architect of their pan-tribal Native American alliance. Ruddell and Shane should likely be used with caution. Both left the Shawnee in the late 1700’s to return to “white” American life. Cozzens aptly references both later in Tecumseh’s life as being in conflict with his later efforts to unite the tribes. However, Ruddell and Shane had both participated in attacks and killing of Americans, so they have been shown to “hedge” the truth a bit to hide the horrors of what they had participated in as Native American warriors. I like the inclusion of their material, but it needs to be tempered with competing sources from the British side to ensure veracity. Tenskwatawa’s contributions come from his later life, after Tecumseh’s death, when he was dependent upon the American government for support. His later words should be treated with caution, as he clearly had an agenda of his own to propagate and image of himself greater than it was. I am truly surprised at the seemingly short shrift paid to the importance of British Indian agent Alexander McKee. McKee is an invaluable source of insight into the Shawnee, as he was married into the tribe and considered a Shawnee himself. Calloway freely cites McKee to good effect, and I am surprised he didn’t recommend incorporating McKee’s insights into the story.

Cozzens also sets out his determination to resurrect the role of Tenskwatawa, from puppet of Tecumseh to co-equal partner in their pan-tribal nation building. In many ways, he succeeds in bringing Tenskwatawa out of Tecumseh’s shadow in his own right. Yet, Cozzens often relates incidents that seemingly confirm Tecumseh’s preeminence. In this effort, I say Cozzens partially succeeds in his lofty thesis.

Overall, despite my seemingly disproportionate amount of criticism on a few areas, this work is incredibly well written. It truly portrays the complexity of Old Northwest Native American politics and life, and the treacherous path before Tecumseh. Cozzens also does a masterful job trying to resurrect the “real” Tecumseh from the myth that he has grown into in the two centuries since his death. He was a real person, complete with faults, mistakes, and shortcomings. And that refreshing picture is probably the greatest contribution of Cozzens work. Definitely a highly recommended book!

[Terence · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tecumseh and the Prophet is an interesting look at the lives of pan-Indian icon Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa, dba the Prophet, and the fraught history of the Northwest Territory (the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley primarily) in the early 19th century. The focus tends to be on Tecumseh but I suspect this is a fault of the sources. Tenskatawa never captured the imagination of white American audiences as his brother, the "noble savage," did and Native sources are scarce (and usually filtered through white perspectives).

Cozzens does a good job examining the byzantine relationships between the European & American colonizers and the Native tribes, among the Native tribes, and between the various white powers that contested the region. It was never simply a narrative of oppressor vs. oppressed but is the tale of individuals and distinct peoples trying to adjust to a radically changing world.

I wonder, had we similar sources for the Roman-Rhine or China-steppe frontiers (or any border region) if similar dynamics wouldn't have operated.

I'd recommend reading this in conjunction with Autumn of the Black Snake: The Creation of the U.S. Army and the Invasion That Opened the West, a history of the same region just prior to Tecumseh/Tenskwatawa's rise to prominence.

[S · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a white person I can attest that we are indeed all part of an immense crab that washed ashore from the stinking Atlantic

[Steve's Book Stuff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Peter Cozzens' Tecumseh and the Prophet is the dual biography of two Shawnee brothers who founded an Indigenous spiritual movement, and attempted to establish a confederacy among the Indian nations of the Old Northwest. The goal of the confederation was to protect their land rights against incursion from the newly established United States.

Between the end of the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, the United States began it's westward expansion by migration and settlement into the Northwest Territory. This territory was part of the western lands acquired by the young nation through the 1783 Treaty of Paris that established peace between Great Britain and her former colonies. Formalized by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, it consisted of today's states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan and part of Minnesota.

Cozzens' book spans the timeframe from the late 1700s through the War of 1812 and beyond, and details the successes and failures the two brothers had in trying to hold the indigenous nations together as a counterforce to the Americans. At points during this period the two sides lived in peace with each other and found ways to coexist. At other points fighting broke out as each side tried to prevail.

Tecumseh is a fascinating figure. He was a brilliant tactician on the battlefield and held enormous powers of persuasion not only over his Shawnee fellows but other nations as well. Tenskwatawa, his brother, was initially a ne'er-do-well and drunkard, who experienced a spiritual awakening and became the Prophet, attempting to unite the Indian nations into a single religious practice, while his brother was the diplomat trying to tie the nations together for defense of their land.

But the Indians of the Old Northwest were a fractious lot. Where Tecumseh and his followers had visions of driving the Americans off their land so that they could live as they had before, others welcomed the Americans and wanted to assimilate, taking up farming techniques and practices, and a way of life no different than their white neighbors.

Things came to a head with the War of 1812, as Tecumseh allied himself with the British, who ultimately lost the war. Tecumseh himself was killed in battle in Upper Canada, leaving his brother to survive as best he could.

Overall, this is a fascinating book. Unfortunately, the first half of the book, which covers the young brothers and their rise to prominence, was a real slog for me. I do think that the author did a good job of putting a narrative framework to the story, so that it flowed well and never became confusing. Nevertheless, there is so much ground covered, and so many characters to keep straight that I found myself exhausted by it all and laid the book aside for a few days at a time between chapters. The second half of the book however, really held my interest and I read through it in just a couple of days.

I give Tecumseh and the Prophet 3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐. While I did like the book, it required a bit of determination for me to get through the first half. This book would be well liked by anyone with an interest in early US history, westward expansion of the US, Indian nations and land treaties, or the Old Northwest.

[Heidi Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well researched; I did not know that Tecumseh travelled the Great Lakes region including Lake Erie, nor was I aware that he gre up in southern Ohio. I am a huge fan of Peter Cozzen's work; each book I have read has been painstakingly researched, and again, this biography of Tecumseh and his brother, Tenskwatawa (Shawnee Prophet) delivers. Magnificent!! I am traveling to some of the Ohio sites as soon as the virus (hopefully) becomes more manageable. Bravo! Peter Cozzens! You have brought to life a history that is important, and especially the lives of these two brothers.

[Blake Baehner · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was about 5 or 6 years old, I remember my family going on a long drive into central Ohio to an outdoor amphitheater near Hocking Hills State Park. I recall being extremely excited because we were going to see Tecumseh! , an outdoor adventure play. I didn’t know much about the Shawnee war chief at the time but, being interested in history, I was excited. That was until about 10 seconds in, after which I remember the earsplitting reverberation of a cannon and a man being realistically (at least to my young mind) scalped. Scared as I was, I was rapt too.

I grew up in Kentucky near both Indiana and Ohio, places which Tecumseh and his contemporaries were quite familiar with. Sadly, this fascinating and critical era in American history – from the settling of the Ohio River Valley and the Old Northwest to the death of Tecumseh – is often overlooked in American pop culture despite being dense with some incredible true stories. Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Geronimo, and Pocahontas are all household names while your average America has probably never heard of Tenskwatawa. As such, you can imagine my joy when I found Peter Cozzens’s Tecumseh and the Prophet at Half Price Books. The saga Cozzens constructs is both exhaustive and well sourced.

Cozzens has long been an excellent historian. His Civil War books are exceedingly well researched and his more recent histories on the Indian Wars have been well acclaimed. This book, thankfully, achieves both high marks as an academic history but also a sprawling narrative of the incredible delegate and warrior Tecumseh and his brother the prophet, Tenskwatawa.

Both the main actors and their factions are vividly described in detail. The British fight for their own interests, admiring the Tecumseh’s warriors but failing to support them, especially when the fortunes of war turns against them. The Americans (mainly from Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky) can be duplicitous (as in the case of William Henry Harrison) and murderous. Yet some also show a great respect, empathy, and even compassion for their Shawnee opponents. The various Indian tribes are nearly always conflicted with each other; some want to fight, others to assimilate. Loyalties are constantly shifting and tribes bicker more than cooperate, to their own detriment.

Cozzens seems to emphasize that in reality, people are rarely one thing. All the factions involved had to make different choices under different circumstances. In the context of the wider geopolitical situation, numerous wars, and the ethnic cleansing of the West, it's understandable that hard decisions need to be made.

This sort of duality is emphasized fantastically in the main two characters of the narrative. Tecumseh is a cunning diplomat and able warrior, easily the more level headed of the two. Yet he is prone to moments of anger. Tenskwatawa on the other hand is a hopeless warrior and a poor politician but it is his vision that gives Tecumseh the power to unify the tribes. Both of the brothers are given a fair shake here although Tecumseh comes out as the abler and certainly more level-headed of the two.

The action is incredible too. I don’t just main the numerous battles and skirmishes either (though they abound in gory detail). The fervor around Tenskwata’s revelations, Tecumseh’s journey’s, and their numerous speeches and encounters are all rendered beautifully. Though Cozzen's writing is usually straightforward, he does have moments where his prose becomes very elevated and dramatic; he writes with a sure hand here and the narrative is all the better for it.

With all of these elements in mind, Cozzen’s book plays out like an epic tragedy. Tecumseh’s heroic attempts to unify his people and end white expansion are brought down by tribal bickering, British fecklessness, and a musket ball to the heart. A noble idea that, sadly, with his death, lost perhaps all true hope to stop the rising tide.

My qualms are few with this book. I would liked to have known a bit more about how the Shawnee defeat in Tecumseh's War affected future attempts at pan-Indian alliances. Overall, a bit more to to contextualize the struggle of the brother's within more of American history would have been nice. These are quibbles though; Cozzens knowns what story he wants to tell and he tells it very well.

Today, those who know of Tecumseh admire him. Yet many of those who do turn a blind eye to the still suffering descendants of the native peoples. They neither vanished nor did their story end – the tragedy is ongoing. Perhaps that makes stories like this one all the more important. Tecumseh wasn’t and isn’t just a symbol; he was the living embodiment of the need to preserve not just his people, but also the culture that sustains them. For my money, Cozzens did a damn good job telling that story.

[Tim Schneider · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tecumseh and the Prophet: The Shawnee Brothers Who Defied a Nation by Peter Cozzens

I had enjoyed my read of Cozzens' "The Earth Is Weeping" which was an overview of the various wars between the U.S. and native nations west of the Mississippi, so I thought it made sense to read his dual biography of Shawnee Chief Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa, the Prophet. Tecumseh probably came as close as anyone to putting together a Pan-Indian alliance to facedown the expanding United States. Part of the early movement toward that was due to the religious purification movement started by Tenskwatawa, which attracted adherents from a number of eastern tribes. Tecumseh followed in the footsteps of Pontiac in his attempts to stop The Long Knives from driving the natives from the Eastern Woodlands, backed, in part, by a religious revival headed by his brother. Ultimately he was unsuccessful and met his death in The Battle of The Thames during the War of 1812.

This is a very well written biography and it's important in that it recognizes the importance of Tenskwatawa in the forging of what became known as the Tecumseh Confederacy. Tenskwatawa has been marginalized in history, as have most native religious leaders. It's interesting to note that while Americans were in the midst of the second Great Awakening, Tenskwatawa was attempting to start a native religious purification revival. And yet history has gone out of its way to ignore native religious leaders.

I'm pretty well-read on native relations from about 1866 forward, but this covered a lot of stuff of which wasn't terribly familiar. I never quite realized (though I should have) that Kentucky and Tennessee were populated well before Ohio. And I never realized that there was a very large trade in deer-skins which led to over harvesting that was as detrimental to the eastern woodland tribes as buffalo hunting was to the plains Indians.

This is also a crash course in both American and British Indian policy in the late 18th and very early 19th centuries. And...neither comes out looking particularly well. For the British, the Indians were useful until they weren't, at which point you abandoned them. The War of 1812 was a tiny side-show that took a back seat to the Napoleonic Wars and so the natives were to be used to the extent they might help keep Canada safe, but nothing more. To the American's they were an impediment to continued growth for a land-crazed population. I'm trying to come up with any American politicians who come off well...and I can't really come up with any. Not Jefferson. Certainly not William Henry Harrison, whose paranoia about the British and whose lust for higher position, fed into moves that exacerbated tensions with the the natives at almost every possible turn.

This really is an excellent read about an area of American history that, I think, gets short shrift. Certainly, based on his achievements, Tecumseh's name should be up there with Red Cloud as among the very most successful Native American diplomats and war leaders.

[Audrey Ashbrook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tecumseh and the Prophet by Peter Cozzens is a historical biography of both Shawnee Native American war leader Tecumseh and his younger brother, Tenskawatawa or "the Prophet," and their joined efforts to unite the tribes of the continent to combat the taking of their homelands. 

This was an incredible book about the history of Ohio and the Native Americans who lived here, and Tecumseh's life story and his trials trying to save his homeland from American seizure during their invasive expansion into Ohio in the late 1700s, leading to Tecumseh's involvement in the War of 1812. 

I read this book in preparation to see Tecumseh! the outdoor drama performance on Sugarloaf Mountain in Chillicothe, near where Tecumseh was born and where the Shawnee people resided in the 1700s. What an incredible and interesting performance! I'm glad I read this book beforehand because it gave the entire background to the events. It is a sad, devastating piece of Ohio history. 

[Michael Jolls · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is, by far, one of the best books I’ve read on the topic of the Native Americans, particularly the era between post-Revolution to the War of 1812. Peter Cozzens’ writing is on par with the same great history authors of today, bringing the characters, the complexities and the story to life. It does a marvelous job narrating the biography of two Shawnee brothers (Tecumseh & Tenskwatawa) while articulating the politics surrounding them - both tribal and U.S. government. Despite all the complications of a foreign culture, "Tecumseh and the Prophet" remains a page-turner. Strongly recommend reading for any fans of American history - you will not be disappointed.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very detailed and informative book about the Shawnee Brothers and the dynamics of relations between Indian and Western nations in the late 18th and early 19th century. I think it does a good job of veering away from telling any single, simple story, but it still crafts an interesting biographical narrative. Well worth reading.

Plus, it made me want to go through and re-read/read Orson Scott Card's Tales of Alvin Maker , which deals with fictionalized versions of Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa, particularly in Red Prophet (though it looks like Card never actually finished the series? I was reading it as it came out and I expected that he might have written that 7th and last book some time in the past 18 years...)

4 of 5 stars

[Alex Stephenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent detail in this book, although I (like other readers) take issue with the idea that Cozzens is truly giving Tenskwatawa equal time with Tecumseh - the first third of the book goes by without a single mention of the Prophet. But it's a very interesting portrait of one of the most impassioned and (for a while) successful examples of Indian resistance in American history.

[Ken Burkhalter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good history of American and British relations with the Native Americans of the Central Ohio Valley and surrounds during the pre-Revolutionary War to early nineteenth century. For those who have heard of Tecumseh but do not know much of him, this is a good place to start. The book also tells the story of his brother, Tenskwatana, who styled himself as a prophet.

There are enough shenanigans, examples of ineptitude and greed, and missed opportunities on all sides of the story to solidify the unfortunate history, which the Shawnee brothers clearly saw coming. Try as they might, the odds were too long.

Tecumseh is the point, however. A warrior of great renown, he was also respected for his integrity and, usually, his fair-mindedness. Readers may be surprised at his statesmanship, the key to his long-lived attempts to secure a place for his tribe and others. Sadly, it was not to be.

A very good read and listen, highly recommended to those who are interested in the story and the period.

[Niko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did your history teacher tell you that the War of 1812 was in part an indigenous insurgency? Mine didn't!

[Kirk]

DNF @ 10%. Too long to continue at present. Also, the book club that choose it met today.

[Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb. Well researched and well written, gave many insights into the brothers and their place in History.

[Brad Dexter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tecumseh is one of the greatest Americans ever born but his exploits are frequently given short shrift. That's not the case in this well researched and excellently written book. This tells the story of Tecumseh from Oldtown to the Thames as well as I have ever read.

[Jane Ammeson · Rating 5 out of 5]

LIves of Tecumseh and his brother revealed in new biography

Historian Peter Cozzens, author of "Tecumseh and the Prophet: The Shawnee Brothers Who Defied a Nation," not only has written the first biography in more than 20 years of Tecumseh, the great Shawnee leader who was admired even by those who wanted to destroy him, but he also dispels, through solid research, the misrepresentation of Tecumseh's brother, Tenskwatawa, also known as the Prophet, in a book scheduled to be released Oct. 27.

The heroic Tecumseh was a great warrior and war leader who in his portrait looks strong, valiant, and handsome. Tenskwatawa, his younger brother, as his portrait shows, had none of those physical attributes and history recalls him as a charlatan, a drunk and, let’s face it, a loser.

Tenskwatawa was an alcoholic, but gave up drinking, and despite all the travails of his later life, never indulged in drowning out his many sorrows again.

“I was surprised to discover, after reading contemporaneous accounts, that the Prophet’s influence was prodigious. He was able to build an alliance with many of the tribes of the Old Northwest,” said Cozzens, the author or editor of 16 books on the American Civil War and the wars of the American West.

When visiting Prophetstown State Park near Lafayette and seeing the landscape where the Prophet and Tecumseh strived, beginning in 1808, to build a community centered around the strength of banding together, Native American traditions and a cultural revitalization, it’s difficult not to be overcome with sadness knowing what happened to their dream. The same is true in Cozzens well-written book.

Ultimately, Prophetstown was destroyed by American troops led by General William Henry Harrison, who would go on to become the ninth president of the United States. Tecumseh would die in battle in 1813, and the Prophet would end up impoverished and forgotten.

“Writing the book was extremely emotional,” said Cozzens, who served as a captain in the U.S. Army, where his focus was on military intelligence, before spending 30 years as a foreign service officer in the U.S. Department of State. “I had a roller coaster of emotions. The most moving part for me was writing about Tenskwatawa at the end. I felt myself in that wigwam, the cold wind blowing across the plain and knowing that this guy who had been one of the greatest prophets lived out his days like this.”

Cozzens, who stumbled across a document recounting the Prophet’s final days in what would become Kansas, visited the place where he lived, discovering a few last vestiges connecting to his past.

“It’s now a run-down neighborhood in Kansas. It was in a ravine; the original spring is still there,��� he said.
The Prophet died in 1837 and for almost 200 years has been looked upon as a failure.

“He stayed sober for the rest of his life,” Cozzens said. “He was an equal partner with his brother; they had a symbiotic relationship. I think they came remarkably close to changing history.”

For your information
Peter Cozzens Virtual Event
What: Daniel Weinberg, owner of the Abraham Lincoln Bookshop, talks with Peter Cozzens about his latest book, Tecumseh, and the Prophet. The program streams live on Facebook.
Live stream: 3:30 p.m. Oct 27, 2020
Connect: www.facebook.com/AbrahamLincolnBookShop/