He was a Shawnee, apparently of a chiefly family, who -- for reasons not entirely clear -- left his village of origin and wandered for years among the tribes of (what today is) the Eastern United States. Almost all evidence that we have about him comes from (a) Whites who were once captives of Indians (b) Whites who fought against him. The latter source is obviously biased; there is general agreement, however, that Tekemthe lived an exemplary warrior's life and delivered eloquent speeches. The former source is suspect, because many White captives of Indians willingly participated in their social life, including raids against White settlers. Upon release or recovery, the former captives tended to emphasize their victimization by their Indian captors, minimizing their assimilation to Indian ways.
The following is from an autobiography published only in 1842, so it is hard to know how much the account is "reconstructed' by knowledge of what followed (indeed, it is hard to estimate the extent that the entire story of Tekemthe was interpreted by whites solely in terms with which they were already familiar):
This Prophet counseled opposition to the White Man by a return to traditional ways. (None other than Thomas Jefferson disparaged this advice, but all Whites appreciated that an Indian charismatic leader could do serious harm.) Return to tradition wasn't a very attractive strategy to most Indians, since they recognized some very real benefits of the White Man's technology and organization.
Eventually, the Prophet urged a war against the Whites which proved disastrous, ending with the battle of Tippecanoe. Thereafter, his influence sharply declined and that of his brother Tekemthe increased. At about the same time, Tekemthe became more closely aligned with the British who were trying to hold Upper Canada against the Americans.
In urging resistance to the White Man, Tekemthe seems to have reacted flexibly to his reading of the prospects for military victory. (Was he trying to pursue an "Indian national interest"?) He certainly urged war on some occasions and conciliation on others. When he was counseling war, he had to face two kinds of arguments by Indian opponents. The first urged flexibility and appeasement as the only alternative to extinction. The second urged selective cooperation with the Whites to exploit divisions among them and to gain the benefits of their trade. (Today we might call that "constructive engagement.")
Here is a typical report of Tekemthe's recapitulation of "history" in an effort to confute the second argument (in a speech to the Osages) by standing it on its head:
Did Tekemthe urge a policy similar to containment? Compare his (few surviving words) to John Lewis Gaddis' account of tactics of the US during the Cold War.
William Henry Harrison, then Governor of Indiana (which was much of the contested land) wrote this report to the War Department in 1811:
Is Tekemthe to be understood, then, as a tribal Machiavelli?
(see http://www.tippecanoe.com/corp/tec_hist.html)
Here's a rather typical summary assessment of his military career, written from the British point of view:
"It is not to be supposed...that Tecumseh cooperated with us on accunt of any special love which he bore us. he chose us as the least of two evils, and assisted us in fighting his old enemies merely because he hated the latter with all the venom which long and bitter feuds had engendered wlithin his breast. he did us good service, and died bravely fighting for our cause. Such being the case, he has deserved well at our hands; but those enthusiastic hero-worshippers who have so persistently held him up to our admiration as the warm and affectionate friend of British ascendancy on this continent know little of the man and his motives. The simple truth is that Tecumseh would cheerfully have tomahawked every white man in America with his own hand had any opportunity of doing so been afforded him." John Charles Dent, Canadian Portrait Gallery. Toronto, 1880, Vol 2, p. 150.
Does this observer construct Tekemthe in the image of the contemporary European statesman/warrior? How can one know if the assessment is justified? (Tekemthe died fighting with the British