40+ Chief Tecumseh Quotes From The Influential Shawnee Leader

He was a famous orator and led his people or tribe to fight against Americans and tried to repel them. He took a major part in  Tecumseh's War and the Battle of Tippecanoe.

Tecumseh also allied with the British to fight off the Americans. Tecumseh was later killed in battle. His quotes are still very inspiring for many young Americans, such as "love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people." This teaches an important message as you should love your life, perfect to make your life-long missions achievable. In life, beautify all things so you can feel inspired by Tecumseh quotes at all times. In your life, seek to make your heart trouble no one and choose peace, like all things in your life.

If you like these Tecumseh quotes, you may also like the following Native American quotes and sitting bull quotes.

Many Tecumseh quotes talk about valor and how one should be brave even in times of war. Here are some of his famous brave Tecumseh quotes.

1. "Sing your death song and die like a hero going home."

- Tecumseh.

2. "Always give a word or sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, or even a stranger, if in a lonely place."

- Tecumseh.

3. "Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide."

- Tecumseh.

4. "If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself."

- Tecumseh.

5. "Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people."

- Tecumseh.

6. "When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living."

- Tecumseh.

7. "When the legends die, the dreams end; there is no more greatness."

- Tecumseh.

8. "Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision."

- Tecumseh.

9. "So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours."

- Tecumseh.

10. "When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way."

- Tecumseh.

Tecumseh had much to say about white privilege and white men taking over their lands. Here are some of his quotes on the Americans conquering the Native American land.

11. "When Jesus Christ came upon the Earth, you killed Him. The son of your own God. And only after He was dead did you worship Him and start killing those who would not."

- Tecumseh.

12. "You are always driving the red people this way! At last you will drive them into the Great Lake, where they can neither stand nor walk."

- Tecumseh.

13. "We shall show to those who sold that they had no rights to the claim they set up, and we shall see what will be done to those chiefs who did sell the land to you."

- Tecumseh.

14. "We want freedom from the white man rather than to be integrated."

- Tecumseh.

15. "You try to make differences between them."

- Tecumseh.

16. "Our Great Father, over the great waters, is angry with the white people, our enemies. He will send his brave warriors against them; he will send us rifles, and whatever else we want."

- Tecumseh.

17. "The white people, who are trying to make us over into their image, they want us to be what they call 'assimilated', bringing the Indians into the mainstream and destroying our own way of life and our own cultural patterns."

- 1927 Grand Council Of American Indians.

18. "Brother, I wish you to give me close attention, because I think you do not clearly understand. I want to speak to you about promises that the Americans have made."

- Tecumseh.

19. "The white men aren't friends to the Indians... At first they only asked for land sufficient for a wigwam; now, nothing will satisfy them but the whole of our hunting grounds from the rising to the setting sun."

- Tecumseh.

20. "Brother, after such bitter events, can you blame me for placing little confidence in the promises of Americans?"

- Tecumseh.

21. "The white man says, there is freedom and justice for all. We have had "freedom and justice," and that is why we have been almost exterminated. We shall not forget this."

- Tecumseh.

22. "Brothers, we must be united; we must smoke the same pipe; we must fight each other’s battles; and more than all, we must love the Great Spirit."

- Tecumseh.

23. "The white people send runners amongst us; they wish to make us enemies that they may sweep over and desolate our hunting grounds, like devastating winds, or rushing waters."

- Tecumseh.

24. "The white people came among us feeble; and now we have made them strong, they wish to kill us, or drive us back, as they would wolves and panthers."

- Tecumseh, Speech To The Osages, winter of 1811-1812.

25. "I am Shawnee! I am a warrior! My forefathers were warriors. From them I took only my birth into this world. From my tribe I take nothing. I am the maker of my own destiny!"

- Tecumseh.

26. "No tribe has the right to sell, even to each other, much less to strangers."

- Tecumseh.

27. "My father! The sun is my father, and the earth is my mother, and on her bosom I will recline."

- Tecumseh.

28. "We can go no further... unless every tribe unanimously combines to give a check to the ambition and avarice of the whites they will soon conquer us apart and disunited and we will be driven from our native country and scattered as autumn leaves before the wind."

- Tecumseh.

30. "Where are the Narragansett, the Mohican, the Pokanoket, and many other once powerful tribes of our people? They have vanished before the avarice and the oppression of the White Man, as snow before a summer sun."

- Tecumseh.

31. "You never see an Indian come, do you, and endeavor to make the white people divide up?"

- Tecumseh.

32. "We gave them forest-clad mountains and valleys full of game, and in return what did they give our warriors and our women? Rum, trinkets, and a grave."

- Tecumseh.

33. "Let us form one body, one heart, and defend to the last warrior our country, our homes, our liberty, and the graves of our fathers."

- Tecumseh.

34. "The Great Spirit made all things...He supplied these grounds with game, and gave them to his red children; and he gave them strength and courage to defend them."

- Tecumseh.

35. "Sell a country! Why not sell the air, the clouds and the great sea, as well as the earth? Did not the Great Spirit make them all for the use of his children?"

- Tecumseh.

Tecumseh, being an inspirational figure, had been spoken about often. Here are some of the quotes of eminent people who wrote or spoke about Tecumseh.

36. "Three Indian figures stand out in bold relief on the background of Canadian history - the figures of Pontiac, Brant, and Tecumseh."

- Ethel T. Raymond, 'Tecumseh: A Chronicle Of The Last Great Leader Of His People'.

37. "A more sagacious or more gallant warrior does not, I believe, exist."

- Briitish Major-General Sir Isaac Brock.

38. "The literature of Tecumseh far exceeds that of any other American Indian."

- John Sudgen, 'Tecumseh: A Life'.

39. "Indisputably, Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa were the most significant siblings in American Indian history."

- Peter Cozzens, 'Tecumseh And The Prophet: The Shawnee Brothers Who Defied A Nation'.

40. "Tecumseh followed a shrewd policy of the realpolitik, seeking his way by international negotiation as well as war and ultimately allying himself with the former colonizer Great Britain against the United States."

- Amy H. Sturgis, 'Tecumseh: A Biography'.

41. "If it were not for the vicinity of the United States, he would perhaps be the founder of an empire that would rival in glory Mexico or Peru."

- William Henry Harrison.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Tecumseh quotes then why not take a look at Andrew Jackson quotes, or Chief Joseph quotes.