[201. War with the Indians; how the Indians felt about being forced to leave their homes; the story of the log.]—The year 1811, in which the first steamboat went west, a great battle was fought with the Indians. The battle-ground was on the Tippecanoe[1] River, in what is now the state of Indiana.
| "MOVE ON." |
The Indians fought because they wanted to keep the west for themselves. They felt as an old chief did, who had been forced to move many times by the white men. One day a military officer came to his wigwam to tell him that he and his tribe must go still further west. The chief said, General, let's sit down on this log and talk it over. So they both sat down. After they had talked a short time, the chief said, Please move a little further that way; I haven't room enough. The officer moved along. In a few minutes the chief asked him to move again, and he did so. Presently the chief gave him a push and said, Do move further on, won't you? I can't, said the general. Why not? asked the chief. Because I've got to the end of the log, replied the officer. Well, said the Indian, now you see how it is with us. You white men have kept pushing us on until you have pushed us clear to the end of our country, and yet you come now and say, Move on, move on.
1 Tippecanoe (Tip-pe-ka-noo'): see map in this paragraph.
[202. What Tecumseh[2] and his brother, the "Prophet,"[3] tried to do.]—A famous Indian warrior named Tecumseh determined to band the different Indian tribes together, and drive out the white men from the west.
Tecumseh had a brother called the "Prophet," who pretended he could tell what would happen in the future. He said, The white traders come here, give the Indians whiskey, get them drunk, and then cheat them out of their lands. Once we owned this whole country; now, if an Indian strips a little bark off of a tree to shelter him when it rains, a white man steps up, with a gun in his hand, and says, That's my tree; let it alone, or I'll shoot you.
Then the "Prophet" said to the red men, Stop drinking "fire-water,"[4] and you will have strength to kill off the "pale-faces" and get your land back again. When you have killed them off, I will bless the earth. I will make pumpkins[5] grow to be as big as wigwams, and the corn shall be so large that one ear will be enough for a dinner for a dozen hungry Indians. The Indians liked to hear these things; they wanted to taste those pumpkins and that corn, and so they got ready to fight.
2 Tecumseh (Te-kum'seh).
3 Prophet (prof'et): one who tells what will happen in the future.