TECUMSEH 311 serious work to do the settlers had to do it themselves. There was little grum- bling over this state of affairs, however, as the Kentuckians and Westerners gener- ally had been brought up to do their own fighting and not to wait for the Gov- ernment at Washington to do it for them. In those days British agents were actively at work among the Northern Indians to keep them in a state of disaf- fection towrd the United States. Meanwhile, the Indians were in the midst of the great tragedy that has been enacted since the days of Columbus. They were the victims of traders who sold them fire-water, and for poor and cheap weapons, demanded furs whose value was out of all proportion to that given in return. Many of their women married white renegades who corrupted the morals of the tribes. They were being dispossessed of the finest homes and best hunting grounds in America, for the buffalo was then found in Kentucky in great herds, and their position was thoroughly unhappy. They had then and happily this is not wholly the case at present no rights that a white man was bound to re- spect. But the Indians were still many and the settlers were few. To a great leader, who of course could not take into account the mighty force behind the Anglo-Saxon ranks that first marched over the Alleghenies, it would still seem practical to band the red men together in a vast confederation and drive the in- vaders back again beyond the Ohio and the mountains. This was Tecumseh's splendid plan. ThisAvas the design to which he devoted his life, and which he pursued with such ardor and genius as to do what an Indian had never before accomplished. Pontiac, it is true, at the siege of Detroit gathered a number of tribes under his leadership, but he never dreamed of a continental confederacy, as did Tecumseh. In this vast design he was materially aided by his brother, best known by the name of the Prophet, who, while lacking in judgment, was none the less a man of extraordinary force of character. He proclaimed that he had received power from the Great Spirit to confound the enemies of the Indians, stay the march of disease and death, and that he was the Messiah to lead his peo- ple to new and greater things. But as conditions to success the Indians must stop drinking fire-water, they must cease intermarrying with the whites or trad- ing with them, and they m.ust hold all things as the property of all. They must return to their original dress and manners, and forget that they had ever seen or known the " pale faces." The fame and influence of the Prophet spread with almost miraculous rapidity, and young men and warriors came from afar in crowds to receive inspiration from him. Tecumseh with rare ability turned this influence to advance his own plans. And of course this constant stream of visi- tors to his brother, enabled the chief to spread his racial idea far and wide. One of the things that Tecumseh maintained was that the Indians held the land in common, that no one tribe owned this or that territory, but that the Great Spirit had given it equally to all. This he said at the conference at Vincennes, but General Harrison ridiculed the idea and stated that if the Great Spirit had intended to make one nation of the Indians, he would not have put different languages into their heads, but would have taught them all to speak alike. Te- cumseh bitterly replied that no one tribe had the right to give away what was the
