How to use this Page

Below I have copied and pasted the letter I put in my mailbox today to President Obama. It was inspired by his speech at Camp Buchenwald, the Nazi concentration camp, this morning. My letter addresses my concerns about the treatment of the Native American in the United States of America:

June 5, 2009

Dear President Obama,

I continue to be proud of the involvement I had in the campaign here in Brandon Township to elect you as President. Every time I hear you speak, even when I rarely disagree, I feel proud and confident of having left the Republican Party to campaign for your election.

I felt especially proud of my country having elected you for President as I watched you speak at the Buchenwald Camp with Elie Wiesel this morning. The horrors of the Holocaust have always pressed sorrow upon my heart since as a young girl I read “The Diary of Anne Frank”. I now have family who are Jewish, a sister-in-law and her three children, and I love them very much.

But, I am writing because it is time for you to do in the United States what you did today in Germany when you recognized and spoke about the Holocaust there, honoring the victims and expressing all of our hope that no such thing will happen again. You honored Chancellor Merkel’s bravery for looking into Germany’s past and now it is time for America to focus on the log in its own eye. And I am speaking about the past and present plight of the Native American in the United States of America.

A memorial should be erected along the Trail of Tears. A memorial should be erected on the spot where Chief Tecumseh of the Shawnee died valiantly, fighting for his people’s rights. America should erect memorials all across our country honoring and remembering the tribes and their ancestral homelands and we should be brave and look into the horrors we inflicted upon the American Indian in our excessive greed for land and our government’s attempt at ethnic cleansing. And then I wish that you would travel across the United States and stop at each place and the survivors should be there because the American Indian has survived despite all of our white ancestor’s efforts to wipe them out. It is time for the racism against the American Indian to end. This racism is prevalent in our culture, in everything from children’s books to Steve Cattrell on The Office telling everyone to sit “Indian style”. This racism is evident in the poverty on our reservations, such as Pine Ridge Reservation and we should be totally ashamed of ourselves for letting anyone live like that here in America.

I am of English, Irish, Scottish, Cherokee, Inuit and most likely, Shawnee descent. My mixed-blood great grandparents were so tired of the discrimination they faced that my great-grandfather distanced himself from his family and never spoke about who his people were. It is only through a great effort amongst the cousins to gather historical documents, family stories and DNA testing that we are beginning to know for certain of which tribes our ancestors were from. Many people in America are like me, of Native American ancestry. But I am white – raised white with all of its privileges and benefits.

It is time we look our own Holocaust in the eye, bravely and without blinders, and without justification for our cruel actions against the American Indian. It is time for each American child to be taught the truth about American History. I am 45 years old and just learned that Thomas Jefferson, one of my childhood heroes, made a great and concerted effort to virtually wipe out the Shawnee Indian from the face of this earth, whether through small pox or war, he wanted them gone. He is no longer one of my heroes. Shawnee Chief Blue Jacket and Shawnee Chief Tecumseh and Cherokee Warrior Dragging Canoe and any other American Indian who fought for their rights are my heroes. And it is time we recognize them fully. It is time we honor and recognize the significant contributions the American Indians have made to our country and continue to make.

Let us be honest about our past Presidents and I am hoping that with you, we can finally be proud of how the United States cares for and treats our Native people. It is time to make things right and honor the treaties and do what we can to be fully accountable for our wrongdoings against the American Indian.

Sincerely yours,

 Jennifer Ralston Porter

Panther in the Sky was published in 1989 by Ballantine Books. An excellent year that also provided one of the biggest blessings in my life, son Ben.

James Alexander Thom did an awesome job with this book! I loved it! Panther in the Sky is a “novel based on the life of Tecumseh”. It is 652 pages packed full of details that take you right into Tecumseh’s life. You will learn some Shawnee language, you will learn about their customs, their beliefs, their sorrows and joys. You will come to understand exactly what happened in the Battle of Fallen Timbers, Tippecanoe and the battles Tecusmeh fought in in the War of 1812.

Billy Caldwell is in this book, but he’s not very important. Star Watcher and Open Door and the rest of Tecumseh’s family are brought to life. I had to say that I cried a few times and I don’t normally do this while reading. I cried in the opening thinking about the Shawnees trying to escape with their lives once more when the Americans forced them off their treaty-secured lands and I cried when Tecumseh was buried by his people.

Blue Jacket, though, is portrayed as a white captive who rose to his rank of Chief and we all know now that was a legend invented by the descendants of Sweringen. This mistake made me wonder at times what else Thom got wrong, but he does say in his acknowledgments that he received a lot of assitance from the Shawnees themselves, so I felt better about the book knowing that.

Tecusmeh did not propose to Rebekah Galloway and his people found his body and gave him a proper burial, rather than the horrible story that he was mutilated beyond recognition. Not that the others who died with him, were not. Also, Tenskwatawa remains sober after his visions, and the whole deal of how Open Door got involved in the battle that ended up with the Americans wiping out Tippecanoe feels more like the truth than the other versions I’ve read.

There are a couple of steamy romance scenes, so this book is for the older teen and up.

In Panther in the Sky , you will follow the story of Tecumseh from birth to death. He is one of the most amazing people who have ever walked the face of this earth.

I cannot wait for the American Experience film on Tecumseh to come out on April 20th.

Crossing the Panther’s Path was written by Elizabeth Alder and published in 2002. It is the fictionalized story of a fifteen-year-old boy named Billy Calder and his involvement with the Shawnee Chief Tecumseh during the War of 1812.

The character of Billy Calder, according to the author, is based upon the life of Billy Caldwell, who eventually became named a Pottawattamie Chief. If you research Billy Caldwell on the internet he will be listed as having a Mohawk mother, a Pottawattamie mother and even a Shawnee mother but Alder calls his mother Windswept Water, of the Mohawk tribe. His father was an Irish man and a captain in the British army and in the novel his father is loving and kind. According to most information I found, his father abandoned him as a young child and Billy grew up with his mother’s tribe. His father took Billy in later in his childhood and had him educated. His father eventually disinherited Billy and it appears to have been due to conflicts over their both desiring to be Commandants of the Canadian fort in Amherstberg, across from Detroit, Michigan.

The novel is also inaccurate in its recounting of Billy’s wives and so it makes sense that the character’s name was changed, though most other historical figures retain their real life names.

Billy wants to join Tecumseh in his fight against the Americans and their theft of Native lands, against his mother’s wishes. Billy is aptozi meaning half-breed. In the end, he marries Jane, another person of mixed-blood. I enjoyed this aspect of the novel. My great-great-grandfather Millen Ralston was half Scotch Irish and half, well, we’re not totally sure. Possibly Cherokee, most likely Shawnee. Millen married Eliza Sinkey who was of mixed blood also, Shawnee, maybe? Some cousins say her ancestors - the Greens, the Hustons, the Sinkeys - were associated with Blue Jacket’s tribe. Some cousins say some cousins today still know some Shawnee language, passed down through the generations. And we have all spent countless hours trying to document or prove our ancestry. Some cousins have done DNA testing to prove their Native American ancestry. I think it is going to remain an educated guess.

I also think we need to talk about the American experience of being mixed blood more often. The story of my ancestors is the story of America also. Survival through assimilation. When Jane doesn’t want Billy to fight anymore, I think my great-great-grandmother may have spoken those words.

Tecumseh is a powerful, intelligent, heroic character in this novel. Tecumseh says it is time for war when a great sign in the sky is followed by the ground shaking. A greenish light then streaks across the sky as when he was born and named Panther Passing Across. Tecumseh shortly after stomps his foot and creates an earthquake felt even by President Madison. Tecumseh is articulate and charismatic.

The fight the Indians waged in an attempt to stop the Americans is presented realistically. Nothing is left out to present a different picture. The massacre at Fort Dearborn by the Native Americans is relayed in its horrifying detail as is the ruthlessness of William Henry Harrison in his pursuit of extermination of the American Indian. As is the deception the Americans pulled at Fort Dearborn, promising whiskey and ammunition they’d already dumped in the Detroit River, for safe passage out of defeated Fort Dearborn. And it is for these reasons, that I recommend this book for middle grade and above students of American history.

I do have some issues with Alder’s novel. Tenskwatawa is portrayed as an imbecilic alcoholic, at constant odds with his brother Tecumseh. Tecumseh does not even really believe that Tenskwatawa really had a vision from Grandmother Kokomothena, telling him that he is the spiritual leader she raises up in difficult times to lead others on the right path. Tenskwatawa is only interested in drinking and he cruelly harasses young children, scaring them with his knife into Billy’s arms. Tecumseh almost kills his brother when he returns and discovers that Tenskwatawa had battled with Harrison, resulting in the destruction of Tippecanoe. I cannot quote my sources but after much reading I had come to believe that Tenskwatawa had given up alcohol and this portrayal bothered me. It felt like a huge liberty to use Tenkswatawa’s real name and identity when Billy Calder’s had been changed. Tecumseh and his brother were very close, they built towns together.

Alder also claims in the novel that Tecumseh traveled to the Blackfoot and possibly the Sioux in his quest to build a coalition. That horse and rider swam across the Detroit River from Fort Malden to Amherstberg yet the current of the river was so swift it hardly ever froze over. That Tecumseh’s son, Cat Pouncing, and Billy are able to bury Tecumseh according to Shawnee custom, his face painted and his head to the West. That a genuine warmth was rarely accorded to outsiders by the Shawnee.

My reading on Shawnee history is not what it should be, but my impression is that the Shawnee often took in outsiders. That what made you Shawnee was the following of their customs and traditions and way of life rather than the color of your skin. That they adopted people willingly and warmly into their tribe.

I cannot imagine swimming across the Detroit River, it is ½ mile wide. The current runs fast, even on a horse. I could not find this information, as to whether or not they travelled across this way. Maybe the river has changed over time.

I have read that Tecumseh’s body was not ever identified, that no one knows where he was buried. That he was probably so badly mutilated no one could identify him. I rather think this is probably the case as he caused the Americans untold grief.

I have located a source that says Tecumseh met with the Sioux, but have not found one to say he traveled to Montana. If you can clear this up for me with a source, I would appreciate it.

Despite some of the dialogue being forced and irritating at times, the story is well-paced and holds the reader’s interest. I will have my daughter read Crossing the Panther’s Path when we study the War of 1812. We will discuss whether or not it is fair to portray Tenskwatawa as a drunk, when he had reformed himself. And by the way, my Ralston ancestors fought in the War of 1812 and for the Americans.