TECUMSEH                                                            THE PROPHET

When Tecumseh (his name means 'Panther Crossing') was born there was a meteor and the Shawnees believed he was going to become important. He became a leader of the tribe when he was in his early twenties.

  He believed that the land belonged to all Indians and that a treaty should not be signed to give up that land to Americans. He led his tribe in fighting the Americans.

   He and his brother started a town near the Wabash River and named it Prophetstown.

  His brother, The Prophet, claimed to be able to visit the spirit world. He encouraged the Indians to reject all the white man's ways and return to the ways of the Indians. When a battle seemed near, Tecumseh left to gather more men and warned his brother not to attack the white men while he was gone. The Prophet didn't listen. He convinced the Indians that they would not be hurt--the bullets would fall as softly as rain. The Indians were defeated at the Battle of Tippecanoe.

     An interesting story is told about Tecumseh's curse:

The Legend of Tecumseh

When, in 1840, Harrison was elected as president of the US, the aging Tecumseh was enraged. He placed a curse on the nemesis who ran a campaign based on slaughtering Indians. The curse is said to be placed on every president that is elected in a year that ends in 0, and that the president will die an untimely and unusual death. Tecumseh then disappeared, leaving no trace.

 

1 month after he was in office, Willam Henry Harrison died of pneumonia, the first United States President ever to die in office.

20 years later, in 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected president, during his second term (April 14, 1865), Lincoln was shot by John Wilks Booth.

20 years later, in 1880, James A. Garfield was elected president, on July 2, 1881, he was shot at the railroad station. When recovery seemed imminent and he seemed recuperating, he suddenly hemmorhaged and died in office, September 19, 1881.

20 years later, in 1900, William McKinley was re-elected president, on September 1901 he was shot twice by a deranged anarchist. He died 8 days later.

20 years later, in 1920, Willam G. Harding was elected president, in 1923 he was sitting in the white house when he died of a sudden and unexpected heart attack.

20 years later, in 1940, Franklin Delenor Roosevelt was re-elected president. During his third term in 1945, he died of Cerebral Hemmorrhaging.

20 years later, in 1960, John F. Kennedy was elected president. in 1963 he was shot and killed by Lee Harvey Oswald. (Puts a new idea on the conspiracy theory)

20 years later, in 1980, Ronald Reagan broke the tradition of deaths, narrowly surviving an assassination attempt. Will this end the tradition of deaths?

This information is from

http://circe.neonexus.com/~crowbot/misc/tecumseh.html

This site gives more information about Tecumseh.

The Prophet is described on this page.

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