Background

Prior to the War of 1812, the British and the Spaniards had been forging alliances with Indians on the American frontier to try to slow American expansionism, and therefore power. One significant Indian Chief, the Shawnee Chief Tecumseh, used this time and support to try to build an Indian Confederacy along the western edge of the American frontier. Tecumseh's Shawnees were based predominantly in current day Indiana, Illinois and western Kentucky, but were historically linked to the Creek people of current day Alabama and Georgia. Tecumseh travelled to Alabama to rally the Creeks to war against the whites in the region.

Below is Tecumseh's speech to the Creeks at Tuckabathcee in October 1811 as told by Sam Dale to JFK Claiborne;