Take Back Our land: Tecumseh Speech to the Osages “We must be united” was the plea from Tecumseh to the Osage tribe. In 1811, Tecumseh, known as the “Greatest Indian”, gave a speech pleading with the Osage tribe that they should unite together to fight against the white man (Tecumseh, 231). He goes on to tell how they had given the white man everything they needed to recover health when they entered their land but in return the white man had become the enemy. The speech to the Osages by Tecumseh illustrates the dangers of the white men to the Indian tribes, and why the tribes should unite together against the white man. Tecumseh wants to create a harmonious environment in this speech between his tribe, and the tribe of the Osages. He …show more content…
He does this by referring to the white men as “poisonous serpents” (Tecumseh, 232). Tecumseh shares the experiences that they had with the Europeans. The white men had asked for land sufficient for a wigwam, but how they turned greedy and the land was not enough for them (Tecumseh, 233). He warns the tribes of the harm the whites can do by causing them to separate. He wants the tribes to fear the whites and uses more metaphors like referring to them as white runners who are “devastating winds” and “rushing waters” (Tecumseh, 233). This reference gives the audience the impression of malicious acts that the white people has brought upon the tribes and what will happen if they don’t unite together and fight back. Tecumseh also warns that the only time the settlers will ever be at peace, will be at the “bosom of our mother” (Tecumseh, 233). Tecumseh is furious! He wants the tribes to feel what he is feeling. He explains to the tribes using historical facts about how the white men came into their existence. They came to their tribes and after being nursed back to health, the white man wanted some land. That wasn’t enough for them. Now they want a whole hunting ground. He is using this imagery to get his audience to understand that the white men are greedy. They are not happy and content with what the tribes have done for them. They want to take and take until the Indians have nothing
(Fleming, 2009) President Washington yelled these words in extreme frustration after receiving word that the Western Confederacy had decisively defeated Major General St. Claire and destroyed the Western Army in the Northwest Territory. The Western Confederacy, led by Miami chief Little Turtle, consisted of Indian warriors from the Miami, Shawnee and Potawatomi tribes. (Henretta, 2012) These tribes united to keep American “whites” from settling their lands, which they claimed north of the Ohio River. The Confederacy used raids and violence to instill fear and unrest in the Northwest Territory. For the United States to claim the Northwest Territory in reality and not just as stated in the Treaty of Paris, the Indians had to be dealt with.
Tecumseh preached that the land belonged to all the First Nations, not to specific groups, and that no tribe had the right to surrender any land. That could only be done with the agreement of all. He was a powerful ally of the British forces during the War of 1812. The Shawnee chief Tecumseh had gathered 10,000 warriors in what is now southern Ontario in 1812, hoping to unify First Nations peoples into a confederacy with their own land and government. With Americans pushing aboriginal people off their lands to the south, Tecumseh and his supporters agreed to join the British and
The French and Indian War altered the relations of the American Colonies and Britain through political, economic, and geographical issues. At the start of the French and Indian War the French owned a big majority of land but the during the war the French lost their land to the English. The Treaty of Paris in 1763 gave the English, the French land of North America (Doc A).
The metaphoric language is used to compare the blacks and the whites trying to live
In response, Shawnee carried a message of aggressive nativism that threaten the American expansion plans. Shawnee leader Tecumseh visit had resulted into a spiritual rebirth it “urged a spiritual cleaning and a material purging that recognized the agent’s activities as only the latest of many problems” (11). Tecumseh and his brother Tuckabatchee joined the Shawnee raids and killed several white men which resulted in retaliation and the start of Creek War. The authors believed that the war would have started with or without the visit of Tecumseh. The fear of American expansion not only affected the Native
They hoped that by agreeing to the government’s terms they would get to keep some of their land, they could protect themselves from the whites, and they would be viewed as a more civilized nation. But their hopes were of no avail. Just like the other tribes, the Cherokee were forced to
Driven by the belief that space was bequeathed to them, the Native Americans feel justified in defending their land against the growing encroachment of the white man as the American landscape unfolds. Their motive is the premise that a higher authority has granted them the right to the space, and that the Great Spirit has created the landscape exclusively for them. Fueled by the formation of conflict over land, the Great Ottawa Chief, Pontiac, in his speech at Detroit, seeks to persuade the tribes, including the Ottawa, Huron, and Pottawatomi to agree to resistance. Invoking the words of the Delaware prophet, Neolin, Pontiac recounts the vision which he believes justifies resistance. Neolin urges the tribes to sever all relations to the customs
The president during the enforcement of the Indian removal act, Andrew Jackson, thought that the indigenous people were less civilized and moral than the settlers, although many of the tribes had adapted to the European lifestyle. He did not believe that the more “civilized” people should live alongside the indigenous people. When congress passed the Indian removal act in 1830 that stated that it was legal to force indigenous people off of their land, he fully enforced it, pushing tribes west. When there was an auction of Cherokee land, he claimed he couldn 't do anything to stop it, but he didn 't truly want to. The indigenous people wanted to coexist in peace, as Red Jacket stated, “‘You have got our country but are not satisfied; you want to force your religion upon us….
Black Hawk evokes emotion in his people to unite them together in his surrender. Black Hawk states “The white men are bad schoolmasters; they carry false looks, and deal in false actions; they smile in the face of the poor Indian to cheat him; they shake them by the hand to
After watching Tecumseh’s Vision, I became more knowledgeable about the struggles Natives had to experience as western civilization occurred. Tecumseh was a trailblazer to his people and was a visionary. He was in favor of a strong Indian confederacy and was a strong Indian leader. As a result of rising tensions between the Shawnees and the Americans, it lead to a costly culmination of battles in order to claim Ohio land and westward expansion. Tecumseh’s legacy lives on and he is remembered for his leadership and courage to take on the Americans.
The line “They drove me out of the forest. They took away my jungles.” shows that the white men had taken them away from their comfort zone, their families, and their possessions. There was also the line. “Now I herd with many-
He goes on to show how different white men and Native Americans are; by how they collect food by hunting, where they choose to live is not in the same place for long periods, and although white men have everything they did not have the right to take away liberty.
Petalesharo’s writing reflected the treatment of Native Americans during the 1800s. Being a Native American himself, Petalesharo was able to give perspective on a point in history typically viewed from a white man’s opinion. The excerpt “Petalesharo” explains how the Native American was able “to prevent young women captured by other tribes from being sacrificed”, making Petalesharo well liked by the Americans (588). Petalesharo gave the “Speech of the Pawnee Chief” infront of Americans to convey the differences between Native Americans and Americans through emotion, logic, and credibility, which showed how the two groups will never be the same, but still can coexist in the world together.
The native will learn the whites religion, language, and their believes in politics/economics. This relates to the poem, “White Man’s Burden”
Although this was originally a poem written by Rudyard Kipling in 1899, it quickly became a hit sensation among Americans as many believed and agreed with Kipling. The poem stated that the white man’s job was to teach and take our African and Mexican neighbors out of savagery by enslaving them and converting turning them towards