Tecumseh to Governor
Harrison at Vincennes
August 12, 1810
Delivered to Governor William Henry Harrison in council at Vincennes on August
12, 1810 after, in Tecumseh's absence, large amounts of land had been sold by the
Indians on both sides of the Wabash River.
It is true I am a Shawnee. My forefathers were warriors. Their son is a warrior.
From them I take only my existence; from my tribe I take nothing. I am the maker
of my own fortune; and oh! that I could make of my own fortune; and oh! that I
could make that of my red people, and of my country, as great as the conceptions of
my mind, when I think of the Spirit that rules the universe. I would not then come
to Governor Harrison to ask him to tear the treaty and to obliterate the landmark;
but I would say to him: "Sir, you have liberty to return to your own country."
The being within, communing with past ages, tells me that once, nor until lately,
there was no white man on this continent; that it then all belonged to red men,
children of the same parents, placed on it by the Great Spirit that made them, to
keep it, to traverse it, to enjoy its productions, and to fill it with the same race, once
a happy race, since made miserable by the white people, who are never contented
but always encroaching. The way, and the only way, to check and to stop this evil, is
for all the red men to unite in claiming a common and equal right in the land, as it
was at first, and should be yet; for it never was divided, but belongs to all for the use
of each. For no part has a right to sell, even to each other, much less to strangers --
those who want all, and will not do with less.
The white people have no right to take the land from the Indians, because they had
it first; it is theirs. They may sell, but all must join. Any sale not made by all is not
valid. The late sale is bad. It was made by a part only. Part do not know how to sell.
All red men have equal rights to the unoccupied land. The right of occupancy is as
good in one place as in another. There can not be two occupations in the same place.
The first excludes all others. It is not so in hunting or traveling; for there the same
ground will serve many, as they may follow each other all day; but the camp is
stationary, and that is occupancy. It belongs to the first who sits down on his
blanket or skins which he has thrown upon the ground; and till he leaves it no other
has a right.