John Sudgen's Tecumseh: A Life: A Book on a Legendary Native American Leader

John Sugden's Tecumseh: A Life may be one of the best books ever written on the subject. While initially difficult to plow through, the book soon draws the reader in, despite the sparse dialogue and frequent interruptions. The book is nonfiction, as opposed to the somewhat-true historical fiction of most other books concerning Tecumseh. Sugden shows great skill in sticking to the facts while still presenting an interesting and informative story about a man who was perhaps the greatest Native American ever to live.

Early in the book, the reader notices the conspicuous lack of the term "Native American." A careful perusal of the Preface brings to light the reason. Upon discussing the term with friends of native descent, Sugden found that they preferred the term "Indian" to "Native American." This is the first of many of Sugden's deviations from the traditional format of other books on the subject.

Another vast difference is the presentation of Shawnee culture. Sugden points out that much of the material used to construct the behavior and customs of the Shawnee in the time of Tecumseh came from research done on Shawnee culture nearly a hundred years after Tecumseh's death. To correct this misinformation, Sugden worked simultaneously on the Tecumseh project and a project to research the history of the Shawnee people in Ohio. The completion of both projects took nearly thirty years.

Sugden choose not to start his book with the birth of Tecumseh, as is often done. Sudgen gives a picture of Tecumseh in youg adulthood, stunning an audience of white men with his eloquence and heart. Sugden then returns to the story of how Tecumseh's parents met, and how they came to Ohio. When Sugden does arrive at the birth of Tecumseh, he glides over it with a mere mention of the difficulty of ascertaining the time and place of the actual birth.

For the next fifty pages, Shawnee life, customs, and alliances are laid out for the reader in simple terms with facts to back up each claim. The footnotes are daunting to all but scholars on the subject, but provide even more factual basis for the sometimes unusual claims that Sugden makes throughout the book. While his claims are not particularly difficult to believe, they often deviate from the popular truths associated with Tecumseh, and debunking these myths is one of Sudgen's reasons for writing.

The book contains several informative and detailed maps which provide points of reference and allow the reader to better understand the action of the book. Especially important is the map of Tecumseh's Country, which shows the gradual westward movement of the tribe. Less informative but equally interesting are the two sections of portraits in the books. Many important historical figures and places are detailed there, including Tecumseh himself, Simon Kenton, the Prophet, Fort Harrison, and others.

The action of the book builds slowly, as Tecumseh and his people are introduced and become like an extended family of the reader. The interactions between the Shawnee and the white settlers are presented rationally, without an excess of emotion. Though this approach does not create the strong feelings in the reader that many historical fiction accounts do, it is clearly more factual and presents both sides more accurately than other accounts.

A major point of contention for most authors and historians seems to lie with the Tenskwatawa, otherwise known as the Prophet. In his early life, Tenskwatawa (then known as Lalawethika) was a drunk and a woman abuser, along with several other derogatory titles. However, after having a dream concerning the afterlife, Tenskwatawa vastly reforms, and begins to preach to the Shawnee about a new way of life.

This is where the tales begin to differ. Many accounts, including that of Allan W. Eckert, claim that Tecumseh was the real Prophet, and that he fed prophecies, plans, and ideas to his brother, to avoid appearing to take too much power himself. In this version of events, Tecumseh's plan fails entirely due to the pride of the Prophet. In Sugden's book, however, the Prophet stands on his own. Though the idea for the Indian Confederacy is all Tecumseh's, the ideas for social reform come entirely from the Prophet and his dreams.