Tecumseh: Speech to Major General Henry Procter at Fort Malden

The Shawnee leader Tecumseh rose to prominence fighting against renewed American westward expansion after the Revolutionary War. In the face of American incursions, the Shawnee were forced to yield much of present-day Ohio in the Treaty of Greenville of 1795 and then southern Indiana in the Treaty of Fort Wayne of 1809. Until the War of 1812, Tecumseh traveled extensively, speaking out against the United States and trying to gather a united Indian resistance to American expansion. When war came in 1812 with open hostilities between Great Britain and the United States, Tecumseh had only a war band composed of warriors personally loyal to him—no longer a unified Indian nation or confederation. They joined the British side and fought decisively until they were driven back to the Canadian base at Fort Malden. In his speech to Major General Henry Procter at Fort Malden, Tecumseh threatens that his contingent would desert if the army did not stand and fight the Americans, thus provoking the Battle of the Thames, in which he died.