Cougar Face
The Chicago Black Hawks are champs again and are named after a obscure guy who was chased into Iowa. Clearly there were greater native Americans that fought against White encroachment and one of them was Tecumseh. John Sugden wrote a book called simply "Tecumseh" of this great war leader that tried to unite the Indians of the old Northwest and develop an Indian country once and for all allied to the British. No hockey organization would dare to name themselves after Tecumseh as he really was a fighter and threatened the very expansion of White America in the nineteenth century. Mr. Sugden wordy book covers the spectrum of Tecumseh's life and of his brother with their city in Prophets Ville and their religious revivalism caught on with many tribes in the South and Midwest. the Ohio valley was the scene of countless bloodletting and throat cutting between Indian and White that was not too much unlike the violence you see in this hockey sport. Tecumseh was livid by the treaty of Greenville that gave thousands of acres to the American government and was signed by mostly Iroquois tribesmen and consisted mostly of Shawnee lands. He tried to avoid war for most of the time with the land hungry Americans that were always bringing down trees and setting up farms on old ancient hunting grounds the Shawnee needed to subsistence their lifestyle.
This really is the only native American book you will need about Tecumseh and is a lengthy but well worth read of this incredible resistance leader for all North American native tribes. It goes onto to describe the new Madrid earthquake of 1811 and how this helped give Indians a belief and sign that they were to strike. An opportunity came with the War of 1812 and natives and their British allies struck out at several spots in the contested lands. The elaborate alliances of old enemies that Tecumseh had to cultivate is detailed at length in this reading as well as Tecumseh's belief that return of the old ways were needed for Native Americans to best resist losing their culture. Already during this time period many cultural aspects of Indians were dying as a reliance of European made goods made Indians lose their knowledge and craftwork. Luckily no sports professional organization has disgraced this leader with his moniker on their jersey although many companies have used his name and image through the years. Tecumseh was arguably the greatest of all Indians and it would of been a shame to see his name used as a sports mascot for ignorant whites with no knowledge of their evil and history of actions against the names these sports teams continue to use.
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