From the Battle of Tippecanoe to the War of 1812: Tecumseh, William Henry Harrison, and the Struggle Over Indigenous Lands

Two leaders of very different backgrounds and with opposing visions for the future of Indigenous lands in the American West struggled to defeat one another during the early 1800s. William Henry Harrison was a son of one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He journeyed west, became governor of the vast Indiana Territory, and sought statehood by attracting settlers and imposing one-sided treaties. Tecumseh belonged to an honored line of Shawnee warriors and was by all accounts one of the 19th century’s greatest leaders. His father died while fighting the Virginians flooding into Kentucky in the 1770s and, in his dying words, made his sons promise to never give in to the land-hungry settlers.

Writer and historian Peter Stark exposes the fundamental conflicts at play through the little-known but consequential struggle between the two men, culminating in the War of 1812 and the death of Tecumseh.

Stark’s book Gallop Toward the Sun: Tecumseh and William Henry Harrison’s Struggle for the Destiny of a Nation (Random House) is available for purchase.

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• Purchase your copy of Gallop Toward the Sun: Tecumseh and William Henry Harrison’s Struggle for the Destiny of a Nation by Peter Stark here.
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