Siapakah Tecumseh?

Seorang tokoh yang terkenal pada awal abad ke-19, Tecumseh adalah anggota suku Shawnee asli Amerika yang bekerja dalam gerakan untuk memelihara warisan dan pegangan tanah yang perlahan-lahan pergi daripada milikan asli negara kepada peneroka Eropah. Kerja ini membawa kepada penglibatan Tecumseh dengan angkatan tentera British semasa Perang tahun 1812.

Dilahirkan di sekitar pertengahan abad ke-18, nama Tecumseh yang diberikan lebih tepat adalah Tecumtha atau Tekamthi. Bapanya adalah seorang pahlawan Shawnee terkenal yang meninggal dunia dalam peperangan. Tecumseh telah dibangkitkan oleh abangnya Cheeksuakalo, untuk menjadi seorang pahlawan kaumnya. Dengan nama yang diberikan yang diterjemahkan sebagai "Panther in the Sky" Tecumseh akhirnya menetap di Ohio, di mana saudaranya muda Tenskwatawa telah mendapat reputasi sebagai pemimpin sebuah gerakan baru.

Tecumseh (March 1768 – October 5, 1813) was a Native American leader of the Shawnee and a large tribal confederacy (known as Tecumseh's Confederacy) which opposed the United States during Tecumseh's War and the War of 1812. Tecumseh has become an iconic folk hero in American, Aboriginal and Canadian history.

Tecumseh grew up in the Ohio Country during the American Revolutionary War and the Northwest Indian War, where he was constantly exposed to warfare. With Americans continuing to encroach on Indian territory after the British ceded the Ohio Valley to the new United States in 1783, the Shawnee moved farther northwest. In 1808, they settled Prophetstown in present-day Indiana. With a vision of establishing an independent Native American nation east of the Mississippi under British protection, Tecumseh worked to recruit additional tribes to the confederacy from the southern United States.

During the War of 1812, Tecumseh's confederacy allied with the British in The Canadas (the collective name for the colonies of Upper Canada and Lower Canada), and helped in the capture of Fort Detroit. American forces killed Tecumseh in the Battle of the Thames, in October 1813. His confederation fell apart, the British deserted their Indian allies at the peace conference that ended the War of 1812, the dream of an independent Indian state in the Midwest vanished, and American settlers took possession of all the territory south of the Great Lakes, driving the Indians west or into reservations.

Dan ini adalah puisi dimana Lt Rorke tinggalkan untuk anaknya dalam filem "Act Of Valor - 2012"

“So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people.

When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.”

~ Tecumseh