Shawnees and Mohicans

Angel Atkins

History 131

Comparative Essay #1

Shawnees and Mohicans

        History is something that is important for everyone to know and understand. How well documented history is, the better it will be remembered. In the case of the Battle of Tippecanoe, the Battle of the Thames, and the War of 1812, R. David Edmunds wrote a book called “The Shawnee Prophet” which was about the  Shawnee Tribe, and during the French and Indian War, Michael Mann made a movie about the Mohican tribe that fought in the war. While author and film producer each did something about Indian Tribes they did it in different ways, their purposes were different, and they each had their own flaws in how their own way of documenting something about history.

        In The Shawnee Prophet, Edmunds tries to show Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa, the Shawnee Prophet, led an intertribal movement. Historians give Tecumseh, the war leader most of the credit for the political way to unify all Indian tribes, while Edmunds is trying to show the prophet had a bigger influence on the Shawnee and other Indian tribes than the historian give him credit for. Tenskwatawa tries to get many followers and is successful for a period of time once he begins with his new religious belief. It was not until Tenskwatawa had a huge number of followers from near and far did Tecumseh start his political journey to unite off tribes.

        David Edmunds, I believe achieves his goal in this book because he focuses on just Tenskwatawa. Edmunds beings a few years before explaining who Tenskwatawa was and how the tribe saw him, then while at a campfire he falls over and is pronounced dead. Before his burial he comes back to life and explains what the Master of Life has shown him and how the Indians need to live and do things to keep their lands and win one the white men. Edmunds then goes on to explain how Tenskwatawa was able to was able to achieve everything he did. After the was of 1812 and the death of Tecumseh, Tenskwatawa’s brother, the prophet’s fame dies and the British supplied less and less to him and soon he had no followers. Edmunds explains how Tenskwatawa was wanted in the United States and that is why he didn’t return until Clark saw an opportunity to have Tenskwatawa come back and led the Shawnees west like the government was wanting so they could claim all of Ohio. Tenskwatawa was able to gather followers and convince other leaders to move west. Eventually everything went back to the way it was for Tenskwatawa in Canada, only his close family had anything to do with him. When he dies he was buried in present day Kansas City, Kansas. Edmund is able to share Tenskwatawa’s, the prophet, story and keep it alive and how it actually was in history and not how the historians are trying to portray it. Edmunds portrays that everything for the Shawnee’s happened because of Tenskwatawa, the prophet, and not that he was second to his brother Tecumseh like the historians portray it even though Tenskwatawa’s fame died about the same time his brother died.

        Some issues that raise from the book can be like the flaws of the book. There are flaws in the book because anytime there is history, and it goes as far back as this does, name and dates can get mixed up or maybe even changed. Also, one person can say something happened one way and someone else may say it happened another way. One person can interpret the work of another totally different than someone else that read the same exact work.

        Now in the movie, The Last of the Mohicans, Mann tries to show how the last men of the Mohican tribe helped the French and Indian War. It was a troubling time for them and they were outnumbered by anyone on either side of the war but they still had a big influence on the British in the part of the war that Mann focused on.

        Michael Mann, I believe, achieves his goal with the movie. He does this by showing the French army is attacking Fort William Henry, a British outpost commanded by Colonel Munro. Munro’s daughters Alice and Cora set out from Fort Edward to visit their father, escorted through the dangerous forest by Major Duncan Heyward and guided by an Indian named Magua. Traveling cautiously, the group encounters the white scout Natty Bumppo, who goes by the name Hawkeye, and his two Indian companions, Chingachgook and Uncas, Chingachgook’s son, the only surviving members of the once great Mohican tribe. Hawkeye says that Magua, a Huron, has betrayed the group by leading them in the wrong direction. The Mohicans attempt to capture the traitorous Huron, but he escapes. Hawkeye and the Mohicans lead the group to safety in a cave near a waterfall, but Huron allies of Magua attack early the next morning. Hawkeye and the Mohicans escape down the river, but Hurons capture Alice, Cora, and Heyward. Magua celebrates the kidnapping and then Hawkeye and the Mohicans burst onto the scene, rescuing the captives and killing every Huron but Magua, who escapes. After a harrowing journey impeded by Indian attacks, the group reaches Fort William Henry, the English stronghold. They sneak through the French army besieging the fort, and, once inside, Cora and Alice reunite with their father. A few days later, the English forces call for a truce. Munro learns that he will not receive any reinforcements for the fort and will have to surrender. During the withdrawal of the English troops from Fort William Henry, the Indian allies of the French indulge their bloodlust and prey upon the vulnerable retreating soldiers. In the chaos of slaughter, Magua manages to recapture Cora and Alice and to escape with them into the forest. Heyward, Hawkeye, Munro, and the Mohicans discover Magua’s trail and begin to pursue them. The Magua had separated his captives, confining Alice to a Huron camp and sending Cora to a Delaware camp. The group manages to rescue Alice from the Hurons and at the Delaware village, Magua convinces the tribe that Hawkeye and his companions are their racist opponent. Uncas reveals his exalted heritage to the Delaware sage Tamenund and then demands the release of all his friends but Cora, who he admits belongs to Magua. Magua departs with Cora. A chase and a battle arise. Magua and his Hurons suffer painful defeat, but a rogue Huron kills Cora then Uncas begins to attack the Huron who killed Cora, but Magua stabs Uncas in the back. Cora and Uncas receive proper burials the next morning amid ritual chants performed by the Delawares. Chingachgook mourns the loss of his son, while Tamenund sorrowfully declares that he has lived to see the last warrior of the noble race of the Mohicans.