The Warrior and the Prophet: The Shawnee Brothers Who Defied a Nation
You probably know Peter Cozzens as the author of The Earth is Weeping, his monumental study of the Indian Wars in the western USA in the later 19th century. In The Warrior and the Prophet he turns to the end of the 18th and the early 19th centuries and the Indian Wars in the Midwest.
This is a double biography of the two Shawnee brothers, Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa, who united the disparate tribes of the Midwest against the Americans. It is a long, highly detailed account of a decades-long guerrilla war, ambush by ambush, murder by murder. Don’t look to this for a quick overview, but if you have a deeper interest, this is the book for you.
Tecumseh, the warrior of the title, is relatively well-known. Cozzens seeks to rescue his brother, the spiritual leader of the Indian resistance, from relative obscurity and highlights his importance in transcending tribal loyalties.
A worthy successor to The Earth is Weeping.
