Tecumseh

~1768–1813 · Shawnee (Old Piqua, Ohio) · Early American Republic, War of 1812

Known for: Shawnee leader who built the largest Native American confederacy to resist American expansion—killed at the Battle of the Thames

Tecumseh was the most formidable Native American leader the United States ever faced. He traveled thousands of miles building a confederacy of tribes from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico to resist American westward expansion—the most ambitious Native resistance movement in history.

He allied with the British during the War of 1812, was commissioned as a brigadier general, and was killed at the Battle of the Thames in 1813. His confederacy died with him, and resistance to American expansion effectively ended east of the Mississippi.

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