Chapter 8
in the latter part of the eighteenth century there stood on the banks of the mad river a tributary of the ohio about seven miles below the site of the present city of springfield a village of the chihuahua indians called this village had been built on the site of an ancient indian town known as chelicothet near the river the banks of which at this point were about twenty feet high stood a rude fort built of logs and surrounded by a stockade of cedar pickets outside the stockade were grouped the huts and wigwams of the inhabitants and surrounding the village were the cornfields and orchards looking to the southward there met the eye a stretch of prairie land hemmed in by the forest on this prairie roamed occasional herds of buffalo wanderers from the great plains of the west deer and antelope were to be seen in great numbers feeding on the rich prairie grass beyond the village to the westward lay the unbroken forest on the north the land was rough and broken rising abruptly into rocky cliffs
here and there a dwarfed cedar or pine clung to the face of the precipice with gnarled and twisted roots or a hardy vine hung its green curtain over the naked rock to the eastward ran the mad river in its impetuous descent to the ohio amid these scenes the young tecumseh was born in the year seventeen sixty eight his father pukashenwa was the chief of the kiskapoke and his mother metbowetasky a member of the turtle band both clans of the shawano tribe which was itself a sub-tribe of the great algonquin nation the name tecumseh the primary meaning of which is a panther springing upon its prey also signifies a shooting star the vivid imagination of the indians picturing a falling star as the panther of the sky tecumseh was the fourth child and three other children were born after him
chisica the eldest of the family achieved some fame as a warrior laliwasica later known as the prophet was closely associated with tecumseh throughout his life of the other members of the family little is known save their names according to the indian custom the young tecumseh immediately after his birth was placed in a sack made of soft deerskin laced up the front with leather thongs and decorated with embroidery of colored quills this was strapped to a flat board having a wooden bow extending over the infant's head even though she was the wife of the chief tecumseh's mother had little time to devote to her child she must gather firewood prepare and cook the food brought in by the hunters make and mend the deerskin clothing and moccasins cure the skins of deer and other animals and sow and cultivate and reap their little harvest of indian corn for the first year of his life the little tecumseh was carried about by his mother in the odd little cradle strapped to her back when she worked in the fields she would place the cradle against a tree or pass the loop over a branch so that the cradle might swing to and fro in the breeze
after the lad was a year old he was fed on soup made of venison or fish thickened with wild rice or corn in the fall the indian women gathered the rice and stored it for food during the long winter months paddling their canoes into the marsh they would pull the rice stalks over the side and thresh out the grain with the paddles into the bottom until the frail crafts were loaded as deep as safely permitted thousands of wild ducks came to feed on the rice disturbed by the canoes they rose their wings sounding like thunder and whirling in the air betook themselves to the deeper solitudes of the marshes passenger pigeons flew northward in the spring and returned southward again in the fall in such vast numbers that the sun was darkened at midday it was a very wonderful and interesting world to the young tecumseh he was soon able to run about the village and to ask countless questions about everything he saw or heard his school days had begun yet he did not study out of books his teachers were his parents and elder brothers
from them he learned the names of the plants and trees and how they were useful to man he learned too the names of the animals and their habits walking through the woods his father would tell him what animals had passed and how long since they had gone by it was easy to read the tracks in the snow but hard to decipher the trail in the summer woods he learned how the beavers built their lodges where the squirrels hid their acorns how the red deer ran so swiftly why the rabbit was so timid of the birds he learned their names and all their secrets how they built their nests in summer where they hid themselves in winter like all indian children tecumseh had to shift more or less for himself in and out through the village he went swimming in the river creeping through the forest in some mimic war play watching the building of canoes greeting the hunters on their return from the chase here there and everywhere full of the boundless energy which goes with a happy heart in a strong and healthy young body he watched the women stretching the fresh skins of the deer flesh side uppermost on the ground by pegs driven in the edges
he saw them scrape off the fat and rub in salt to preserve the skin and the brains of the animal to make the leather soft and pliable thus he learned how the animals supplied him with clothing as well as food he joined the other boys in their play shooting his tiny arrows at the birds and squirrels or what he liked best of all playing at war in the winter evenings as he sat by the fire wrapped in warm firs listening to the howling of the north wind through the forest his mother would tell him old indian tales and legends she told him that long ago the world was covered with water so that not even the highest hills were visible wisucotique who was a great magician saved himself from the flood by building a raft the beaver the beaver the beaver the beaver the beaver and the musk rat climbed upon the raft wisucotique said to the beaver go down to the bottom and see if you can bring up a little earth the beaver dived deep under the water and after a long time came to the surface dead
then whissucateek said to the otter go down to the bottom and see if you can bring up a little earth but the otter too came up and floated dead on the water then whissucateek said to the little muskrat go down to the bottom and see if you can bring up a little earth the muskrat remained under the water a very long time and when he came up he too was dead but in his claws was a little mud then whissucateek restored the three animals to life and taking the mud brought up by the muskrat rolled it into a little ball and laid it on the raft he then blew upon it and the ball became very large then whissucateek said to the wolf my brother run around the world and see how large it is the wolf ran around the world and after a long time came back and said the world is very large but whissucateek thought that the world was still too small so he blew again and made it much larger then he said to the crow fly around the world and see how large it is
but the crow never came back so whissucateek decided that the world was large enough the little tecumseh watched the flashing northern lights in the cold winter sky his mother told him that these were the spirits of the departed dancing the ghost dances as they journeyed to the happy hunting grounds he loved to hear the old old indian fairy tale of shingibus the brave little duck shingibus lived in a tiny wigwam near a northern lake he prepared four logs that he might have fire in his lodge through the four cold winter months one log for each month every morning shingibus left his lodge and went out on the frozen lake when he came to the rushes he pulled them out with his strong bill and diving through the hole in the ice caught many fish the north wind watched shingibus and was angry to see how little he cared for the cold so the north wind blew stronger and stronger and sent the snow to cover the land deeper and deeper
yet shingibus was not frightened but caught fish as before then the north wind was still more angry he came himself and stood at the doorway of shingibus's lodge and the biting air crept in and the wigwam crackle with the cold but shingibus only laughed and stirred the fire saying windy god i know your plan you are but my fellow-man blow you may your coldest breeze shingibus you cannot freeze sweep the strongest wind you can shingibus is still your man hey for life and ho for bliss who's so free as shingibus then the north wind came into the wigwam and sat by the fire but little shingibus did not seem to notice him he only stirred the fire till the flames leapt up in the air and sang more loudly his brave little song presently it was too hot for the north wind so he left the lodge and went away at night when tecumseh lay sleepless looking up through the smoke-hole in the wigwam at the stars twinkling in the sky he thought of brave little shingibus
even when he was frightened he did not cry at night his mother had told him that bad indians might hear him and come out of the dark forest the hoot of an owl might be the signal to hidden foes he never heard it at night without a quickened beating of the heart the night breeze laden with the scent of the sleeping woods softly moving the flap of the wigwam startled him but he made no outcry was he not the son of a chief and was he not to be a great warrior himself so he would fall asleep to be awakened by the early rays of the sun and the stir of life about the camp the birth of tecumseh by norman
