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.
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Tecumseh |
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.
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