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You have no doubt heard of the celebrated Shawano chief Tecumseh perhaps the greatest Indian warrior that ever lived, as well as the most remarkable of Indian statesmen.
The Miami chief Richardville is on record as often asserting that Pontiac was born by the Maumee at the mouth of the Auglaize. In any event, Pontiac, like his great successor, the incomparable Shawano chief, Tecumseh, was a native of Ohio. The Ottawas, Ojibwas, and the Pottawottomis had formed a sort of alliance of which Pontiac was the virtual head.
In this treaty the Mingos refused to join, and a detachment of Dunmore's troops made a punitive expedition to their towns. Some discord arose between Dunmore and Lewis's frontier forces because, since the Shawanoes had made peace, the Governor would not allow the frontiersmen to destroy the Shawano towns. Of all the chiefs, Logan alone still held aloof.
"We still stood waiting in breathless silence, and watching the floating spray that noted their progress through the drift. At length they had reached the scene of the struggle. There was an ominous stillness, that lasted for a moment, and then the Indian's fate was announced in the sad, wild note that came wailing up the valley. It was the dirge of a Shawano warrior!
But that which chiefly distinguished the costumes of both the Delaware and Shawano from that of their white allies was the head-dress. This was, in fact, a turban, formed by binding the head with a scarf or kerchief of a brilliant colour, such as may be seen on the dark Creoles of Hayti. In the group before me no two of these turbans were alike, yet they were all of a similar character.
Such, then, was the history of the red calumet, which had proved the protector of our adventurous hunters. In a short time they were enabled to communicate with the Indians by signs; for no people can understand such language better than Indians. The boys informed the Shawano who they were, and for what purpose they had ventured upon the prairies.
Many of their most noted warriors had fallen and among them the Shawano chief, Puck-e-shin-wa, father of a famous son, Tecumseh. * Yet they were unwilling to accept defeat. When they heard that Dunmore was now marching overland to cut them off from their towns, their fury blazed anew. "Shall we first kill all our women and children and then fight till we ourselves are slain?"
He proved a sharp thorn in their side afterwards, to the day of his death. The Shawano also captivated a warrior of the Anantooiah, and put him to the stake, according to their usual cruel solemnities.
"The Shawano Indians took a Muskohge warrior, known by the name of "Old Scrany;" they bastinadoed him in the usual manner, and condemned him to the fiery torture. He underwent a great deal, without showing any concern; his countenance and behavior were as if he suffered not the least pain, and was formed beyond the common laws of nature.
The Indian who had best understood them, and in whom they had produced the strongest emotions, happened to be a Shawano himself one of that very tribe to which both the Prophet and Tecumseh belonged; and which is now but a remnant most of its warlike sons being either dead, or scattered among the nomad bands that roam over the great western prairies.
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