The immediately problem was the Treaty of Fort Wayne, which was discussed in a previous post. White concepts of land ownership couldn't fathom that the same piece of land might be claimed by several different tribes. Thus, when they settled a land concession with one tribe, White negotiators often forgot other peoples who might be involved. Fort Wayne involved more than 2.5 million acres purchased from the Miami tribe in Indiana and Ohio, but left out the tribes who actually lived on the land, including the Shawnee, Piankeshaw, Wea and Kickapoo. Each of these tribes were angry and all petitioned the federal government not to go through with this treaty. None were more upset than the Shawnee, who ranged far and wide throughout the frontier and seemed to have been overlooked the most often. What to do about this was a constant topic in tribal counsels and often created internal strife among tribal leaders. Not all Shawnee supported Tecumseh. Some, such as Spemica Lawba and Black Hoof, favored either non-resistance or coexistence and cooperation, believing that armed revolt was futile. Nevertheless, Tecumseh was gathering a following of Shawnee and other bands from tribes who were willing to fight and Harrison knew he would have to reckon with the Shawnee firebrand. So, he invited Tecumseh to his estate at Grouseland near Vincennes for a parley. Vincennes had a population of about a thousand people at the time. Tecumseh showed up with four hundred warriors, armed and painted for battle. While most of the warriors remained outside the town, Tecumseh and his more trusted lieutenants were invited to Grouseland to meet Harrison, who had also invited Natives friendly to the White cause, including Winnemac of the Potawatomi.
Tecumseh got right to his point, letting Harrison know that he and his followers considered the Treaty of Fort Wayne invalid. If the Miami wanted to sell their rights, that was their call. But they had no right to cede the ability of other tribes to live and hunt on the disputed property. Harrison disagreed, believing that the treaty had been negotiated with the rightful owners of the land, who had agreed to sell. Period, end of discussion. Tecumseh wasn't finished, and launched into what one witness described as an "impassioned rebuttal" of Harrison's argument. The Great Spirit had given the land to all the tribes. One tribe couldn't sell the land or dispose of the rights of others to use it. A characteristic of Tecumseh seemed to be that the more he spoke, the more worked up he got and the more riled his listeners became. Pushmataha of the Choctaw became exasperated with him on one occasion, as did Major Ridge of the Cherokee, believing that Tecumseh was unnecessarily inflaming the situation.
Harrison tried to hear Tecumseh out, knowing that the Shawnee was becoming more upset and the situation was getting more tense. Either Tecumseh's words weren't being translated or the interpreter could keep up and wasn't getting the right sense. The Natives sitting with Harrison believed that Tecumseh was using this speech and the fact that Harrison wasn't following along to incite his followers to violence. One of the men behind Harrison cocked his pistol as a signal to the Governor to watch out. Harrison noticed Tecumseh's men drawing their weapons and he drew his sword, ordering his men to do likewise. The soldiers with Harrison fixed their weapons. Tecumseh drew his war club and advanced on Harrison. This was a potential battle in the making, one thousand people in a small western town against 400 warriors wasn't good odds.
At this point Winnemac of the Potawatomi put himself between Harrison and Tecumseh, trying to talk Tecumseh down. Whatever he said worked, thankfully enough for Harrison. Tecumseh and his men left without firing a shot or doing any harm. Tecumseh and Harrison would have one more tense face-to-face meeting, though it didn't go as far as this. Harrison was lucky.
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