Two hundred years after his death, the Shawnee chief Tecumseh is still considered one of the greatest leaders of North America's First Peoples. This pictorial biography tells the story of his remarkable life, culminating in the events of the War of 1812.

Tecumseh (meaning "shooting star" in Shawnee) was named after the meteor that auspiciously streaked across the sky on the night he was born. He lived during turbulent times, when the thirteen colonies that were to become the United States had begun to rebel against British rule, and settlers were pushing westward, rapidly encroaching on the traditional lands of the native peoples. Tecumseh and his family were forced to move many times as their villages came under frequent attack from militiamen and settlers. His father and his older brother Cheeseekau were both killed in battles with the settlers.

Tecumseh spent his youth learning the skills that would make him a hunter and warrior. At the age of twenty-five he became chief of his own village. As he grew older, influenced by his visionary younger brother, "The Prophet," Tecumseh realized that unless all native peoples came together to form a great confederacy, they would neve...