After the American Revolution, thousands of American settlers flooded into the Ohio River Valley, pushing tribes such as the Shawnee, Ojibwa, and Potawatomi out of their lands.
Tecumseh was a Shawnee leader who believed these tribes needed to band together to fight the American intruders. He was inspired by the beliefs of his younger brother, Tenskwatawa.
Tenskwatawa was a religious prophet who preached that Americans were the children of the evil Great Serpent and that Indians should end all contact with them.
A great speaker, Tecumseh traveled through present-day Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois asking the Indians there to join his confederacy.
