o it happened that in 1806
Tenskwatawa and Tecumseh with their followers established a town at
Greenville, Ohio. There all lived in accordance with the Prophet's
teachings. They strengthened their bodies by running and swimming and
wrestling. They lived at peace without drunkenness. They minded their
own affairs. Now, all this was just what President Jefferson, the
Indians' friend, had often advised the red men to do.

Yet the white neighbors were greatly disturbed and wished to break up
the Prophet's town. In the first place the town was on land that had
been ceded to the United States, or the Seventeen Fires (as the Indians
picturesquely named the new nation), by the treaty of Greenville. Then,
the visiting Indians who came from all parts of the country to hear the
words of the Prophet were a constant source of alarm to the border
settlers. And, although he professed to preach peace, the Prophet was
believed by many to be preparing secretly for war.

Besides, innocent as most of his teachings appeared, those regarding
property rights were hostile to the white race and decidedly annoying to
the men who coveted the hunting grounds of the savages. The United
States government in acquiring land from the Indians had usually
proceeded as if it were the property of the tribe that camped or hunted
upon it. The Indian Commissioners had had little difficulty in gaining
rich tracts of land from weak tribes, at comparatively little expense,
by this method. When it came to a question of land, even Jefferson had
little sympathy for the Indians. He had not scrupled to advise his agent
to encourage chiefs to get into debt at the trading posts, so that when
hard pressed for money they might be persuaded to part with the lands of
their tribes.

Now Tecumseh had seen that the whole struggle between the red men and
the white was a question of land. If the white men were kind to the
Indians and came among them with fair promises and goodly presents,
their object was to get land. If they came with threats and the sword,
their object was, still, to get land. They needed the land. They could
not grow and prosper without it. But if the white men needed land in
order to live how much more did the Indians need it! Where a few acres
of farm land would give a white family comfortable support, many acres
were needed to support an Indian family by the chase. Tecumseh argued in
this way: The Seventeen Fires unite to get our lands from us. Let us