| Following speech by The Great Shawnee Warrior and Statesman, Chief Tecumseh, as included in the following magazine article by Simon Pokagon, Pokagon Band of Pottawatomie Nation:
Published, 1899, (Tecumseh's speech spoken c.1800) "Harpers New Monthly Magazine"
Vol. XCVIII, No. DLXXXVI, March 1899, pp. 649-656
THE MASSACRE OF FORT DEARBORN AT CHICAGO
By Simon Pokagon
Chief of the Pokagon Band of Pottawatomie Nation
He (Tecumseh) generally spoke as follows:
"Before me stand the rightful owners of kwaw–notchi–we au–kee (this beautiful land).
"The Great Spirit in His wisdom gave it to you and your children to defend, and placed you here.
"But ä–te–wä (alas!) the incoming race, like a huge serpent, is coiling closer and closer about you.
"And not content with hemming you in on every side, they have built at She–gog–ong (Chicago), in the very center of our country, a military fort, garrisoned with soldiers, ready and equipped for battle.
"As sure as waw–kwen–og (the heavens) are above you they are determined to destroy you and your children and occupy this goodly land themselves.
"Then they will destroy these forests, whose branches wave in the winds above the graves your fathers, chanting their praises.
"If you doubt it, come, go with me eastward or southward a few days' journey along your ancient mi–kan–og (trails), and I will show you a land you once occupied made desolate.
"There the forests of untold years have been hewn down and cast into the fire!
"There be–sheck–kee and waw–mawsh–ka–she (the buffalo and deer) pe–nay–shen and ke–gon (the fowl and fish), are all gone.
"There the woodland birds, whose sweet songs once pleased your ears, have forsaken the land, never to return.
"And waw–bi–gon–ag (the wild flowers), which your maidens once loved to wear, have all withered and died.
"You must bear in mind these strangers are not as you — they are devoid of natural affection, loving gold or gain better than one another, or ki–tchi–tchag (their own souls).
"Some of them follow on your track as quietly as maw–in–gawn (the wolf) pursues the deer, to shoot you down, as you hunt and kill mé–she–bé–zhe (the panther)."
"But a few years since I saw with my own eyes a young white man near the O-hi-o River who was held by our people as a prisoner of war. He won the hearts of his captors with his apparent friendship and good-will, while murder was in his heart.
"They trusted him as they trusted one another. But he most treacherously betrayed their confidence, and secretly killed not less than nech-to-naw (twenty) before his crimes were detected, and then he had fled...".
Tecumseh research submitted by Steve Newcomb, Shawnee-Delaware.
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