In a speech to Son of Plantation Owners, Governor of the Indiana Territory, and Future US President William Henry Harrison, Tecumseh spoke the following words on August 11, 1810 at the front lawn of Harrison's residence in Vincennes, Indiana:
Brother, I wish you to give me close attention, because I think you do not clearly understand. I want to speak to you about promises that the Americans have made.
You recall the time when the Jesus Indians of the Delawares lived near the Americans, and had confidence in their promises of friendship, and thought they were secure, yet the Americans murdered all the men, women, and children, even as they prayed to Jesus?
The same promises were given to the Shawnee one time. It was at Fort Finney, where some of my people were forced to make a treaty. Flags were given to my people, and they were told they were now the children of the Americans. We were told, if any white people mean to harm you, hold up these flags and you will then be safe from all danger. We did this in good faith. But what happened? Our beloved chief Moluntha stood with the American flag in front of him and that very peace treaty in his hand, but his head was chopped by a American officer, and that American officer was never punished.
Brother, after such bitter events, can you blame me for placing little confidence in the promises of Americans? That happened before the Treaty of Greenville. When they buried the tomahawk at Greenville, the Americans said they were our new fathers, not the British anymore, and would treat us well. Since that treaty, here is how the Americans have treated us well: They have killed many Shawnee, many Winnebagoes, many Miamis, many Delawares, and have taken land from them. When they killed them, no American ever was punished, not one.
It is you, the Americans, by such bad deeds, who push the red men to do mischief. You do not want unity among the tribes, and you destroy it. You try to make differences between them. We, their leaders, wish them to unite and consider their land the common property of all, but you try to keep them from this. You separate the tribes and deal with them that way, one by one, and advise them not to come into this union. Your states have set an example of forming a union among all the Fires, why should you censure the Indians for following that example?
But, brother, I mean to bring all the tribes together, in spite of you, and until I have finished, I will not go to visit your president. Maybe I will when I have finished, maybe. The reason I tell you this, you want, by making your distinctions of Indian tribes and allotting to each a particular tract of land, to set them against each other, and thus to weaken us.
You never see an Indian come, do you, and endeavor to make the white people divide up?
You are always driving the red people this way! At last you will drive them into the Great Lake, where they can neither stand nor walk.
Brother, you ought to know what you are doing to the Indians. Is it by the direction of the president you make these distinctions? It is a very bad thing, and we do not like it. Since my residence at Tippecanoe, we have tried to level all distinctions, to destroy village chiefs, by whom all such mischief is done. It is they who sell our lands to the Americans. Brother, these lands that were sold and the goods that were given for them were done by only a few. The Treaty of Fort Wayne was made through the threats of Winnemac, but in the future we are going to punish those chiefs who propose to sell the land.
The only way to stop this evil is for all the red men to unite in claiming an equal right in the land. That is how it was at first, and should be still, for the land never was divided, but was for the use of everyone. Any tribe could go to an empty land and make a home there. And if they left, another tribe could come there and make a home. No groups among us have a right to sell, even to one another, and surely not to outsiders who want all, and will not do with less.
Sell a country! Why not sell the air, the clouds, and the Great Sea, as well as the earth? Did not the Great Good Spirit make them all for the use of his children?
Brother, I was glad to hear what you told us. you said that if we could prove that the land was sold by people who had no right to sell it, you would restore it. I will prove that those who did sell did not own it. Did they have a deed? A title? No! You say those prove someone owns land. Those chiefs only spoke a claim, and so you pretended to believe their claim, only because you wanted the land. But the many tribes with me will not agree with those claims. They have never had a title to sell, and we agree this proves you could not buy it from them. If the land is not given back to us, you will see, when we return to our homes from here, how it will be settled. It will be like this:
We shall have a great council, at which all tribes will be present. We shall show to those who sold that they had no rights to the claim they set up, and we shall see what will be done to those chiefs who did sell the land to you. I am not alone in this determination, it is the determination of all the warriors and red people who listen to me. Brother, I now wish you to listen to me. If you do not wipe out that treaty, it will seem that you wish me to kill all the chiefs who sold the land! I tell you so because I am authorized by all tribes to do so! I am the head of them all! All my warriors will meet together with me in two or three moons from now. Then I will call for those chiefs who sold you this land, and we shall know what to do with them. If you do not restore the land, you will have had a hand in killing them!
I am Shawnee! I am a warrior! My forefathers were warriors. From them I took only my birth into this world. From my tribe I take nothing. I am the maker of my own destiny! And of that I might make the destiny of my red people, of our nation, as great as I conceive to in my mind, when I think of Weshemoneto, who rules this universe! I would not then have to come to Governor Harrison and ask him to tear up this treaty and wipe away the marks upon the land. No! I would say to him, 'Sir, you may return to you own country!' The being within me hears the voice of the ages, which tells me that once, always, and until lately, there were no white men on all this island, that it then belonged to the red men, children of the same parents, placed on it by the Great Good Spirit who made them, to keep it, to traverse it, to enjoy its yield, and to people it with the same race. Once they were a happy race! Now they are made miserable by the white people, who are never contented but are always coming in! You do this always, after promising not to anyone, yet you ask us to have confidence in your promises. How can we have confidence in the white people? When Jesus Christ came upon the earth, you killed him, the son of your own God, you nailed him up! You thought he was dead, but you were mistaken. And only after you thought you killed him did you worship him, and start killing those who would not worship him. What kind of a people is this for us to trust?
Now, Brother, everything I have said to you is the truth, as Weshemoneto has inspired me to speak only truth to you. I have declared myself freely to you about my intentions. And I want to know your intentions. I want to know what you are going to do about the taking of our land. I want to hear you say that you understand now, and will wipe out that pretended treaty, so that the tribes can be at peace with each other, as you pretend you want them to be. Tell me, brother. I want to know now.
Announcements & Information
Megathreads and spaces to hang out:
❤️ Come listen to music with your fellow Hexbears in Cy.tube
💖 Come talk in the New weekly queer thread (UPDATED TODAY)
🧡 Monthly Neurodiverse Megathread
💛 Read about a current topic in the news
⭐️ May Movie Schedule ⭐
Reminders:
💚 You can join specific comms to see posts about all sorts of topics
💙 Hexbear’s algorithm prioritizes comments and discussions over upbears
💜 Sorting by new makes your comrades happy
🌈 If you ever want to make your own megathread, you can go here
Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):
Nearly got decapitated at work, added another tick to my "near death experiences" tally which is.... scarily high at this point, well into the double digits.
There's a pneumatic arm that pushes pans full of crab out of the cooking machine, and it often gets stuck but continues to push, and we have to wait until the arm stops pushing to pull them out by hand. The cooker takes 3 pans at a time, each filled with 50 pounds of crab, the pans are metal and about 20 pounds, and the rack they sit on is probably another 30.
The rack detached while the arm was still pushing as I was getting into position to pull them out, which sent all ~240 pounds of metal and crab airborne off the sliders they're supposed to slide down, it broke through the plastic backboard put in place in case something like that happens, and if I hadn't moved just in time it would have hit me directly in head. Got a good 10 feet of distance from the cooker by the time it hit the floor.
The universe wants me dead but I refuse to die before capitalism does
When I was like 10 I found a dashcam video of a brick falling off the back of a truck and going through the drivers windshield and ever since then I give myself enough distance to react or pass the person asap if I'm behind a vehicle with something in the back. I've had so many close calls, more than years I've been alive, but it still shakes me every time tbh. If I had literally any other option for transportation the sheer ratio of near death experiences I've had while driving to those I've had while not driving would keep me from ever driving again.
Oh yeah I remember that one, I still think about it sometimes, that was fucked up.
lmao one time i almost died in a forest but it just so happened that a nurse was going for a jog that day and she saved my ass. lets just say i was a dumb kid with a death wish. no one else but me and the nurse for miles, they had some dude on an atv pick me up
I had enough near misses when I was a kid out in the woods that these days I'll tell anyone who listens never to go hiking without a partner. You just never know, and having someone who can go for help can save your life.
yeah i was a nutjob of a kid that would just quietly disappear sometimes. like one time i got it in my head that id walk 5 miles to a lake and swim all the way across it. i feel a little sorry for my parents now xD
spoiler
Whenever this happens, I think I bit it in a parallel universe
Reading about stuff that happened 200-300 years ago is really chilling, and there are so many parallels to how the US does business today, it's like nothing's changed except the propaganda.
been reading liberalism: a counter history and seeing all these dipshits from 200-300 years ago wanking on with flowery language about the purity of their uncompromising love of liberty, but also slavery is a necessary evil for their own good and the poor are a lesser race of animals who need to have their every moment fully controlled by the state
really feels like the propaganda hasnt changed that much either
America refusing to celebrate it on 11/11 but still making that a veterans day is so annoying. memorial day might as well be just a random bank holiday given how we treat it
I mean same can be said for Europe. America at least historically had a WAY larger opposition to the war
Speeches like this are always good reminders to how many countries truly operate. The United States loves to say that today's America isn't good and "we used to stand for something." All that does is glorify an age they likely weren't born in as being when the US was somehow morally good.
It also shows how US foreign policy operates. Broken treaties, breaking promises almost immediately after getting what they want, torture, killing civilians, massacring people that had helped them out earlier. But libs act like modern America is completely separate from what the nation has always been.
Torture, Genocide
The worst one for me to read about was a massacre sometime between the Beaver Wars and the Revolutionary War where a militia impaled a chief's pregnant wife on a stake. The Kentucky militia, especially, was known for being quite ruthless and regular settlers in the Northwest Territory didn't like having them around because they were rowdy and violent.
Another fun fact: the very first official US army was called The Legion, commanded by Washington and led by General "Mad" Anthony Wayne of which the Treaty of Fort Wayne above refers to. The entire purpose of this army was to commit genocide in the Northwest Territory to clear it for land speculation. After the Battle of Fallen Timbers it was dissolved and reformed for doing a job well done. And a big chunk of Ohio was set aside as a military canton.
It's maddening when people say that majority of natives died from disease. There was a very concentrated and deliberate effort to wipe them out.
I mean, the disease theory is partly verified to be true from genetic and archaeological evidence. But diseases became a big thing in the first place due to slavery in Central America and on the coast. It's believed that Mississippian cultures totally collapsed sometime between the De Soto expedition and the settlement of the Virginia colony.
The frustrating part, though, is that Euros encountered the cultures that survived this disease apocalypse, who were totally cool with maintaining the Commons, and then abused the rules to kick everyone out. By the time Tecumseh was going to war, most of the people he would have been fighting alongside were originally from the east coast. And he still wanted to form a big friendly alliance with them and opened his villages to them despite their being in his homeland.
I was thinking more of the West Coast where the extermination was much more calculated. Disease seems to have played a bigger role on the East coast, but I could be wrong about that.
I mean, it was calculated and brutalizing from the beginning. Americans were chomping at the bit to cross over the Appalachians but the British govt drew a line on a map and said "no white ppl past this point" so they wouldn't have to do a big expensive war on the continental interior. Americans basically did the revolutionary war to say "fuck you, i'll genocide when I feel like it". Part of the War of 1812 actually involved Canada trying to put a native buffer state between itself and the US to hold back the expansion, but the americans were undaunted. Similar to the Northwest Indian War, The Trail of Tears was done for land speculation that Andrew Jackson had investments in.
Engels even commented on this phenomenon https://hexbear.net/post/191983
I'm not sure to what degree the west coast was affected by disease. But I do know that pre-contact California was the most densely populated region in North America due to the abundance of food and resources. The first colonists wrote about how the coast was always shrouded in smoke from village cooking fires.
Edit: I do recall reading that, unlike east coast attempts at unification, plains people tended to be more in conflict with tribes that were pushed west. But at the time that region also had a lower carrying capacity...
i always point out to people that, when Europe had the black death, the population bounced back over a couple hundred years. when the Native Americans had smallpox, they were never given the chance to bounce back because colonizers were constantly killing and displacing them.
when the US was somehow morally good.
It's mostly because back in the day the boot was more firmly planted on the minorities and they think that's what made them prosperous. And... they're not entirely wrong.
Also theres a direct parallel between dividing the tribes and what the :cia: and NED still do to this day
Megathread Time!
I want to hear what your favorite quote from Tecumseh's Speech is, nerds. :wonder-who-thats-for:
The historical context of the OP from Wikipedia:
Tecumseh was born in what is now Ohio, at a time when the far-flung Shawnees were reuniting in their Ohio Country homeland. During his childhood, the Shawnees lost territory to the expanding American colonies in a series of border conflicts. Tecumseh's father was killed in battle against American colonists in 1774. Tecumseh was thereafter mentored by his older brother Cheeseekau, a noted war chief who died fighting Americans in 1792. As a young war leader, Tecumseh joined Shawnee Chief Blue Jacket's armed struggle against further American encroachment, which ended in defeat at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794 and with the loss of most of Ohio in the 1795 Treaty of Greenville.
Tecumseh's band moved to various locations before settling in 1798 close to Delaware Indians, along the White River near present-day Anderson, Indiana, where he lived for the next eight years.[47]
While Tecumseh lived along the White River, Native Americans in the region were troubled by sickness, alcoholism, poverty, the loss of land, depopulation, and the decline of their traditional way of life.[50] Several religious prophets emerged, each offering explanations and remedies for the crisis. Among these was Tecumseh's younger brother Lalawéthika, a healer in Tecumseh's village.[51] Until this time, Lalawéthika had been regarded as a misfit with little promise.[51][52] In 1805, he began preaching, drawing upon ideas espoused by earlier prophets, particularly the Delaware prophet Neolin.[53] Lalawéthika urged listeners to reject European influences, stop drinking alcohol, and discard their traditional medicine bags.[54][55] Tecumseh followed his brother's teachings by eating only Native food, wearing traditional Shawnee clothing, and not drinking alcohol.[56]
In 1806, Tecumseh and Lalawéthika, now known as the Shawnee Prophet, established a new town near the ruins of Fort Greenville (present-day Greenville, Ohio), where the 1795 Treaty of Greenville had been signed.[57][58] The Prophet's message spread widely, attracting visitors and converts from multiple tribes.[59][60] The brothers hoped to reunite the scattered Shawnees at Greenville, but they were opposed by Black Hoof, a Mekoche chief regarded by Americans as the "principal chief" of the Shawnees.[61][note 6] Black Hoof and other leaders around the Shawnee town of Wapakoneta urged Shawnees to accommodate the United States by adopting some American customs, with the goal of creating a Shawnee homeland with secure borders in northern Ohio.[63][64] The Prophet's movement represented a challenge to the Shawnee chiefs who sat on the tribal council at Wapakoneta. Most Ohio Shawnees followed Black Hoof's path and rejected the Prophet's movement.[65] Important converts who joined the movement at Greenville were Blue Jacket, the famed Shawnee war leader, and Roundhead, who became Tecumseh's close friend and ally.[66]
American settlers grew uneasy as Indians flocked to Greenville. In 1806 and 1807, Tecumseh and Blue Jacket traveled to Chillicothe, the capital of the new U.S. state of Ohio, to reassure the governor that Greenville posed no threat.[67] Rumors of war between the United States and Great Britain followed the Chesapeake incident of June 1807. To escape the rising tensions, Tecumseh and the Prophet decided to move west to a more secure location, farther from American forts and closer to potential western Indian allies.[68][69]
In 1808, Tecumseh and the Prophet established a village Americans would call Prophetstown, north of present-day Lafayette, Indiana. The Prophet adopted a new name, Tenskwatawa ("The Open Door"), meaning he was the door through which followers could reach salvation.[70][71] Like Greenville, Prophetstown attracted numerous followers, comprising Shawnees, Potawatomis, Kickapoos, Winnebagos, Sauks, Ottawas, Wyandots, and Iowas, an unprecedented variety of Natives living together.[72] Perhaps 6,000 people settled in the area, making it larger than any American city in the region.[73] Jortner (2011) argues that Prophetstown was effectively an independent city-state.[74]
At Prophetstown, Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa initially worked to maintain a peaceful coexistence with the United States.[75][76] A major turning point came in September 1809, when William Henry Harrison, governor of the Indiana Territory, negotiated the Treaty of Fort Wayne, purchasing 2.5 to 3 million acres (10,000 to 12,000 km2) of land in what is present-day Indiana and Illinois. Although many Indian leaders signed the treaty, others who used the land were deliberately excluded from the negotiations.[77][78] The treaty created widespread outrage among Indians, and, according to historian John Sugden, "put Tecumseh on the road to war" with the United States.[79]
In August 1810, Tecumseh led 400 warriors down the Wabash River to meet with Harrison in Vincennes. They were dressed in war paint, and their sudden appearance at first frightened the soldiers at Vincennes.[56] The leaders of the group were escorted to Grouseland, where they met Harrison. Tecumseh berated the condescending Harrison repeatedly, and insisted that the Fort Wayne Treaty was illegitimate, arguing that one tribe could not sell land without the approval of the other tribes. He asked Harrison to nullify it and warned that Americans should not attempt to settle the lands sold in the treaty.[6] Tecumseh informed Harrison that he had threatened to kill the chiefs who signed the treaty if they carried out its terms and that his confederation of tribes was growing rapidly.[57] Harrison said that the individual tribes were the owners of the land and could sell it as they wished. He rejected Tecumseh's claim that all the Indians formed one nation and said that each tribe could have separate relations with the United States if they chose to do so. Harrison argued that the Great Spirit would have made all the tribes speak one language if they were to be one nation.[57]
Tecumseh launched an "impassioned rebuttal," in the words of one historian, but Harrison was unable to understand his language.[57] Tecumseh then began shouting at Harrison and called him a liar.[6] A Shawnee friendly to Harrison cocked his pistol from the sidelines to alert Harrison that Tecumseh's speech was leading to trouble, and some witnesses reported that Tecumseh was encouraging the warriors to kill Harrison. Many of them began to pull their weapons, representing a substantial threat to Harrison and the town, which held a population of only 1,000. Harrison drew his sword, and Tecumseh's warriors backed down when the officers presented their firearms in his defense.[57] Chief Winamac was friendly to Harrison, and he countered Tecumseh's arguments, telling the warriors that they should return home in peace since they had come in peace. Before leaving, Tecumseh informed Harrison that he would seek an alliance with the British if the Fort Wayne Treaty was not nullified.[58] After the meeting, Tecumseh journeyed to meet with many of the tribes in the region, hoping to create a confederation to battle the United States.[59]
@aaaaaaadjsf @Abraxiel @AnarchaPrincess @Antilope @Alaskaball @BrookeBaybee @bbnh69420 @budoguytenkaichi @buh @CARCOSA @CDommunist @Cherufe @ClathrateG @ClimateChangeAnxiety @clover @comi @ComradeCmdrPiggy @ComradeEchidna @context @congressbaseballfan @crime @DasKarlBarx @DeathToBritain @Dirt_Owl @Eco @ella @el_principito @EmmaGoldman @FidelCashflow @GalaxyBrain @ghosts @Goadstool @GoroAkechi @Grownbravy @halfmoon @JamesConeZone @Kanna @Kaputnik @kristina @Koa_lala @LeninWeave @LoudMuffin @Lundi @marxisthayaca @MaybeNickCage @MelaniaTrump @Mindfury @Ness @PM_ME_YOUR_FOUCAULTS @PorkrollPosadist @PootrKrobuttkin @PurrLure @Ram_The_Manparts @Redcuban1959 @REallyN @riley @RNAi @RoseColoredVoid @Sandinband @SorosFootSoldier @Spike @spring_rabbit @TankieTanuki @Tervell @ThisMachinePostsHog @Trouble @ultraviolet @UlyssesT @viva_la_juche @WIIHAPPYFEW @Wmill @wtypstanaccount04 @Yanqui_UXO @Zoift
@Quimby let me know if I need to update links.
Also RIP my inbox again.
A phenomenal speech and, ostensibly, extemporaneous at that. This line is evocative:
Sell a country! Why not sell the air, the clouds, and the Great Sea, as well as the earth?
Tecumseh, brother, it was only a matter of time.
Nations are already preparing for the inevitable water wars.
Paltry profits and practicality can only delay the capitalists in poaching our clouds for their moisture.
Our seas and oceans won't be spared either.
And unless we attain FALGSC, Earth might only be the first in line.
I will now abandon this account for to have a good opsec. Don't cry for me, Argentina!
"i can't believe people who flip burgers will make the same as me"
"why don't you go and do it then if it's so easy?"
"no"
If this post gets one upbear I will write my assignment for my BHSc degree. 1500 words due monday
I'll be honest hexbear I'm not actually drunk, I'm completely sober right now 😔 I've never touched a marijuana or a alcohol ever in my life. I'm a windmill, all I've touched is grain 🍞
lol @ the wrecker who sat it out for 5 months and went mask off over a nice post about data visualization
What's crazy to me is how indigenous and leftist revolutionaries always read like movie heroes. Allende's final speech made me cry. And Sankara's speech to the UN was fire. And Che is worth all the worship he gets.
But libs think commies are boring nerds.
And somehow the libs are the ones who get the epic movie treatment.
Elon Musk, professional boardroom member, gets kicked off a space station for using a screwdriver wrong. Out of spite he makes a movie where he Iron Man blasts all the evil astronauts.
libs like the idea of good guys and morality and stuff. plus, heroes will always arrive and save us, so we just have to wait and cheer.
You know it’s darkly funny that Ukraine has turned a bunch of western leftists into basically Wasbappin.
how many posts do we need about him shaking his wiener around at people
checking cottagecore/paganism blogs on tumblr is always a gamble
they're either going to be super cool people or they're literally nazis
