Red Jacket and Tecumseh

 

            For me, one of the most interesting similarities between Red Jacket and Tecumseh's speeches was that they both focused on the fact that white men were not the original inhabitants of America.  They gave their speeches for different reasons - Red Jacket protesting the introduction of Christianity and Tecumseh arguing for war against the "white people" - but they both support their argument by pointing out that this land was originally theirs.

            They both give a narrative of the Americans (relatively short) history in the new world, pointing out the horrible conditions that the Americans first faced when they arrived here and clearly implying that this land was, and still is, not theirs.  Tecumseh states that "[w]hen the white men first set foot on our grounds, they were hungry; they had no place on which to spread their blankets, or to kindle their fires" (pg 516).  His referral to "our" grounds and his portrayal of the help that the Americans needed from the Native Americans just to survive shows that he still viewed the Americans as trespassers on what was their land.

            Even though Red Jacket tried to maintain a more ambivalent tone towards the Americans on the whole, his speech shows the same feelings that Tecumseh's does.  He also narrated the Americans history, talking of the "evil day" in which the white people arrived in America.  Like Tecumseh, he refers to America in terms of "our" land, but he goes even farther, saying that the Americans "fled from their own country" (pg 514).  This statement was his way of drawing a clear line between the two countries, implying that the Americans already have a home country, and emphasizing the fact that they are guests in this new country, which is the Native Americans home.

            Red Jacket and Tecumseh's speeches were given to different audiences, for different reasons, so it was really interesting to me to see that their views were so similar when talking about the Americans history and rights in the new world.        

Works Cited

Perkins, George, and Barbara Perkins. The American Tradition in Literature.   
        12th ed. Vol. 1. Boston. McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print.