Tecumseh and the Prophet: The Shawnee Brothers Who Defied a Nation

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The first biography of the great Shawnee leader in more than twenty years, and the first to make clear that his misunderstood younger brother, Tenskwatawa, was an equal partner in the last great pan-Indian alliance against the United States.

Until Tecumseh's death in 1813, he was, alongside Tenskwatawa, the co-architect of the greatest pan-Indian confederation in history. Over time, Tenskwatawa has been relegated to the shadows, described as a talent-less charlatan and a drunk. But award winning historian Peter Cozzens now shows us that while Tecumseh was the forward-facing diplomat — appealing even to the colonizers attempting to steal Shawnee land — behind the scenes, Tenskwatawa unified the Shawnee people with his deep understanding of their religion and culture. No other Native American leaders enjoyed such popularity, and none would ever pose a graver threat to colonial expansion than Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa.

Bringing to life an often-overlooked episode in America's past, Cozzens paints in vivid detail the violent, lawless world of the Old Northwest, when settlers spilled across the country to bloody effect in their haste to exploit lands won from the War of Independence. Tecumseh and the Prophet finally tells the untold story of the Shawnee brothers who retaliated against this threat — the two most significant siblings in Native American history, who, Cozzens helps us understand, should be writ large in the annals of America.