A colorized version by John Lossing of the 1812 pencil sketch drawing of Tecumseh done by Pierre Le Dru.
Lossing had never met Tecumseh and assumed that he was a British General.

This brief story about the remarkable and inspirational

Shawnee Chief Tecumseh is representative of

nearly the entire history of American Native people

and the invaders who would steal everything but their dignity.

After years of forced removals, Tecumseh and his people

were about to be asked to move further West once again.

One day Tecumseh and a General who had come to discuss

this next move with him, sat down on a log to talk.

During the conversation, Tecumseh kept sliding over on the log

toward the General and saying to him, "move over".

This was repeated until finally the General was at the end of the log

and Tecumseh gave him a shove and said once more, "move over".

The General replied, "I can't, I am at the end of the log".

Tecumseh then said wisely to him,

"now you know how it is for my people".

Beckley Post-Herald, January 27, 1962

Many of the links below are from the

outstanding web site of PBS, The West

Big Foot