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Blakhoof Chief Shawnee

   Black Hoof was a chief of the Shawnee Indians. Some historians believe he was born in 1717, but this seems unlikely considering that he lived until 1831. His Indian name was Catahecassa. Allied with the French, Black Hoof was present at the defeat of Edward Braddock during the French & Indian War. He did fight at the Battle of Fallen Timbers and represented the Shawnee at the signing of the Battle of Fallen Timbers.
Following the Treaty of Greeneville, Black Hoof became convinced that the Indians had no hope against the whites except to adopt their customs. Using his influence with the Shawnee, Black Hoof encouraged the Shawnee to adopt the whites' way of living. By 1808, his followers established farms at Wapakoneta. A member of the Society of Friends visiting Wapakoneta reported that the Indians were farming over two hundred acres of land. There were several head of cattle and hogs, and other improvements included the construction of a sawmill and a grist mill.

   Black Hoof supported peace with the Americans and encouraged the Shawnee to do the same. However, conflicts between the Shawnee and the Americans continued. Black Hoof proved to be a major problem for Tecumseh and the Prophet as they tried to unite the Indians against the white settlers during the early 1800s. In 1826, Black Hoof organized the Shawnee at an emigration camp set up at Wapakoneta. Several hundred Shawnee left for the Kansas territory. The migration took nearly eighteen months and was a difficult journey.
   
   After leading his followers to Kansas, Black Hoof returned to Wapakoneta. He died there in 1831.

Blujackt Chief Shawnee

   Blue Jacket was a chief of the Shawnee Indians. The date of his birth is unknown, but it was probably in the late 1740s or the early 1750s. His Native American name was Weyapiersenwah (also spelled Wehyehpiherhsehnwah).

   In 1774, Blue Jacket participated in Lord Dunmore's War. During the American Revolution, Blue Jacket, as did most Shawnees, sided with the British. By the war's conclusion, Blue Jacket had settled along the Maumee River.

   During the early 1790s, Blue Jacket and Chief Little Turtle of the Miami Indians were the major leaders of the natives in the Ohio Country. They led their braves against American settlers in western Ohio as the whites swept into the area. The natives defeated an army led by General Josiah Harmar in 1790 and another one led by Arthur St. Clair in 1791.

   Following St. Clair's Defeat, Little Turtle called for negotiations between the Indians and the Americans. Blue Jacket then assumed control over native attempts to stop the influx of settlers. In 1794, he led the Native Americans against an army led by Anthony Wayne. The two sides met at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. Blue Jacket's men fell back to Fort Miamis, on English stronghold. The English refused to assist the natives, and Blue Jacket and his followers agreed to negotiate with the Americans.

   In 1795, the Shawnees, represented by Blue Jacket, signed the Treaty of Greenville. The natives agreed to relinquish all claims to land in Ohio except for the northwestern corner. In 1805, Blue Jacket also signed the Treaty of Fort Industry. Under this agreement, many Ohio Country natives agreed to cede parts of northwest Ohio to the United States.

   Blue Jacket died circa 1810. He probably resided near Detroit.

Cornstalk Chief Shawnee

   Cornstalk was a chief of the Shawnee Indians. He was born circa 1720. His Indian name was Keigh-tugh-qua.

   During the French and Indian War, Cornstalk and the Shawnee sided with the French. They feared that English settlers would flood the Ohio Country if the whites were not stopped. Cornstalk led raiding parties into western Virginia, hoping to drive the English away from Shawnee territory. He also played an active part in Pontiac's Rebellion in 1763. Colonel Henry Bouquet defeated the Shawnee in 1764. To assure that the natives would sign a peace treaty ending the rebellion, Bouquet seized several hostages, including Cornstalk. The Shawnee agreed not to take up arms against the English again.

   During the next decade, fighting did occur between the English and the Ohio natives. Cornstalk tried to ease the tensions, but the influx of more white settlers placed him in the minority of how to deal with the whites. By the spring of 1774, violence was constant. Cornstalk and most other Shawnee natives promised to protect English fur traders in the Ohio Country from retaliatory attacks since the traders were innocent in this attack.

   In August 1774, Pennsylvania militia entered the Ohio Country and quickly destroyed seven Mingo villages, which the Indians had abandoned as the soldiers approached. At the same time, Lord Dunmore sent one thousand men to the Little Kanawha River in modern-day West Virginia to build a fort and to attack the Shawnees. Cornstalk, who had experienced a change of heart toward the white colonists as the soldiers invaded the Ohio Country, dispatched nearly one thousand Shawnee to drive Dunmore's force from the region. The forces met on October 10, 1774, at what became known as the Battle of Point Pleasant. After several hours of intense fighting, the English drove Cornstalk's followers north of the Ohio River. Dunmore quickly followed the Shawnees across the river into the Ohio Country. Upon nearing the Shawnee villages on the Pickaway Plains, Dunmore stopped and requested that the Shawnees discuss a peace treaty with him. The Shawnees concurred, but while negotiations were under way, Colonel Andrew Lewis and a detachment of Virginia militia that Dunmore had left behind at Point Pleasant crossed the Ohio River and destroyed several Shawnee villages. Fearing that Dunmore intended to destroy them, the Shawnees immediately agreed to terms before more bloodshed could erupt.

   Under this treaty, the Shawnee Indians had to agree the terms of the Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1768). They had to forsake all lands east and south of the Ohio River. This was the first time that natives that actually lived in the Ohio Country agreed to relinquish some of their land. In addition, the Shawnees promised to return all white captives and to no longer attack English colonists travelling down the Ohio River. Lord Dunmore's War had come to an end.

   Cornstalk abided by this treaty for the remainder of his life. Most Shawnees did not. By 1777, the Shawnee Indians again planned to drive the white settlers from the region. This time they did so at the urging of British soldiers who sought assistance in defeating their colonists in the American Revolution. Cornstalk and his son, Elinipsico, went to Point Pleasant, the site of an American fort, to warn the whites of the impending attack. The Americans took the natives hostage. Shortly thereafter, news reached Point Pleasant that, presumably, the Shawnee had ambushed and killed an American soldier. Seeking vengeance, the colonists massacred Cornstalk, his son, and other natives in American custody.

Cornstalk Tecumseh Chief Shawnee

   Tecumseh was born in 1768, probably at Old Piqua, along the Mad River in Ohio. He was a member of the Shawnee Indians and eventually became one of their greatest leaders. Tecumseh's father died at the Battle of Point Pleasant during Lord Dunmore's War. Fearing the encroaching white settlers, many Shawnees, including Tecumseh's mother, moved westward first to Indiana, then Illinois, and finally to Missouri. Tecumseh, only eleven years old at the time, remained in the Ohio Country and was raised by his eldest brother, Chiksika, and his sister, Tecumpease.

   Chiksika trained Tecumseh to become a warrior. Tecumseh's first military encounter occurred against an army led by George Rogers Clark into the Ohio Country in 1782. Tecumseh, panic-stricken, fled from the battlefield. Humiliated, he determined to never run again. Tecumseh quickly grew into a brave warrior and eventually became a Shawnee leader. He fought against the army of Arthur St. Clair in 1791. The Indians in the Northwest Territory emerged victorious, and Tecumseh became one of the most trusted leaders of the Shawnees. Younger braves especially admired him, because of Tecumseh's call for violent resistance against further white settlement of native land. The Indians would not be so successful against the army of Anthony Wayne in 1794. At the Battle of Fallen Timbers, Wayne's men defeated the natives, including Tecumseh. Many Indians believed relinquishing much of their land was the only way to appease the whites. Most tribes living in Ohio signed the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. Under this agreement the Native Americans forsook all of their land except the northwestern corner of present-day Ohio. Not all Indians occurred with their tribes' actions, including Tecumseh.

   By the early 1800s, Tecumseh determined that the best way to stop white advancement was to form a confederacy of Indian tribes west of the Appalachian Mountains. Tecumseh believed that no single tribe owned the land and that only all tribes together could turn land over to the whites. He also believed that the Indians united together would have a better chance militarily against the Americans. Tecumseh visited most Indian tribes west of the Appalachian Mountains between Canada and the Gulf of Mexico, trying to convince them to unite together.

Prophet Shawnee

   Tecumseh's younger brother, the Prophet, helped Tecumseh to unite the Indians together. The Prophet had a vision where the Master of Life, the Shawnee Indians' primary god, told him to have the Indians to give up all white customs and products. These things included religious beliefs and agricultural practices, as well as guns, iron cookware, and alcohol. The Indians by turning their backs on their traditional ways had offended the Master of Life. If they returned to native customs, the Master of Life would reward them by driving the whites from the Indians' land. Many natives embraced the Prophet's message and joined the two brothers at Prophetstown, a village the two had established in 1808 in the Indiana Territory.

   The governor of the Indiana Territory, William Henry Harrison, feared the growing number of Indians congregating at Prophetstown. In 1811, Harrison led an army towards the village. Tecumseh was recruiting Indian allies in the southern United States. He left his brother with orders not to attack the Americans. The Prophet claimed to have received another vision from the Master of Life. In this vision, the Master of Life told him to send his warriors against the Americans. The Master of Life also purportedly said that the soldiers' bullets would not harm the Indians. The resulting battle was known as the Battle of Tippecanoe. The Americans defeated the Prophet and his followers, and they destroyed Prophetstown.

   This defeat tremendously weakened Tecumseh's Confederation. Tecumseh had already experienced difficulties in convincing tribes to put aside their traditional differences to unite as one against the Americans. Other Indians, including some Shawnees led by Black Hoof, had actually adopted white customs and had no desire to relinquish them. With his brother's reputation in shambles and their village destroyed, Tecumseh tried to bring his followers back together, but many of these people had returned to their own villages, no longer believing in the Prophet's and Tecumseh's respective visions. During the War of 1812, Tecumseh and his remaining followers allied themselves with the British. Tecumseh hoped that, if the English won, that they would return the Indians' homeland to them. The war ended essentially in a draw. Tecumseh died at one of the most important battles of the conflict, the Battle of the Thames, in 1813. A combined English-Indian force met an American army led by William Henry Harrison. The British soldiers ran from the battlefield, leaving Tecumseh and his Indian followers to continue on their own. The Americans drove the natives from the field, but an American's bullet felled the Indian leader. Tecumseh's death signified the end of united Indian resistance against the Americans. Tecumseh's dream of a united Indian front died with him.

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