the
Americans was desirable. Tecumseh had opposed the sale and cession of
lands to the United States, and he declared it to be his unalterable
resolution to take a stand against the further intrusion of the whites
upon the soil of his people.

So menacing had the Indians become in the Spring of 1810, that General
W.H. Harrison, a son of Benjamin Harrison, one of the signers of the
Declaration of Independence, and then governor of the Territory of
Indiana, invited the brothers to a council at Vincennes, in August.
Tecumseh appeared with four hundred well-armed warriors. The inhabitants
were greatly alarmed at this demonstration of savage military power.
Harrison was cool and cautious, while the bearing of the chief was bold
and haughty. He refused to enter the place appointed for holding the
council saying:

"Houses were built for you to hold councils in; Indians hold theirs in
the open air." He then took a position under some trees in front of the
house, and, unabashed by the large concourse of white people before him,
he opened the business with a speech marked by great dignity and native
eloquence. When he had concluded, one of the governor's aids said to
him, through an interpreter, as he pointed to a chair by the side of
General Harrison:

"Your father requests you to take a seat by his side."

The chief drew his blanket around him and, standing erect, said, with a
scornful tone:

"My father! The sun is my father, and the earth is my mother; on her
bosom I will recline;" and he seated himself on the ground.

The chief declared it his intention to form a confederacy for the
purpose of preventing any further cessions of lands to the white
people, and to recover what had been ceded.

"Return those lands," he said, "and Tecumseh will be the friend of the
Americans. He likes not the English, who are continually setting the
Indians on the Americans." The governor replied that the lands had been
received from other tribes, and that the Shawnees had no business to
interfere. Tecumseh sprang to his feet, cast off his blanket and, with
violent gestures, pronounced the governor's words false. He accused the
United States of cheating and imposing upon the Indians; and then,
giving a sign to his warriors near him, they sprang to their feet,
seized their war clubs and brandished their tomahawks. The governor
started from his seat and drew his sword, while the citizens seized any
weapons or missiles they could find. It w