Tecumseh biography book

Early Years

Tecumseh, whose name in Shawnee means “shooting star” or “blazing comet,” was born in 1768 in the western Ohio Valley to the Shawnee chief Puckeshinwa and his wife Methoataske. According to legend, he was given his name because at his birth a meteor or comet was seen in the sky.

After Puckeshinwa was killed at the Battle of Point Pleasant (Lord Dunmore’s War), Methoataske migrated to Missouri with other tribe members, leaving Tecumseh and his siblings behind to be raised by their older sister Tecumapease.

Tecumapease taught Tecumseh the tenets of Shawnee culture; his older brother Cheeseekau taught him how to be a warrior.

By his teenage years, Tecumseh had come to despise Americans after witnessing the atrocities they committed against the Shawnee people and their land; however, the brutal tactics some Indians used to fight the white man also horrified him.

In the late 1780s, Tecumseh participated in a series of raids on settlers, then accompanied his brother Cheese