"Having ended his oration Tecumseh sat down, Indian fashion, on the ground. The gesture emphasized the theme of his speech: that the land belonged to the Indians, to all Indians." Harrison Bird's brisk reconstruction of the Indian campaigns in the West during the War of 1812 opens with a confrontation between the famous Shawnee chief and William Henry Harrison, Governor of Indiana Territory. The book centers upon the battles and campaigns that brought the Old Northwest Territory -- Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin -- firmly under the American flag. During the course of the action, Harrison rises from a young ensign of the US Infantry to a governship and becomes the victor of Tippecanoe. Tecumseh becomes his people's hero and spokesman, whose dream of the United Indian Nations flashed across the western skies like the meaning of his name -- shooting star -- to fall untarnished at the decisive battle of Tippecanoe Creek.

The Chief and the Governor - Tecumseh - William Henry Harrison goes to War - First Blood for the 1st - General St. Clair has gout - The legion of the United States - At Fallen Timbers on the Maumee - Peace after Greenville - The Governor of Indiana - Tippecanoe - Isaac Brock of Upper Canada - Free trade and sailor's rights - The frontiers of war - The invaluable blessings of liberation - General Hull's Michigan - Two days in August - The Second Northwest Army - A new Army, a new Navy - Autumn Armies - Frenchtown - Thaw of 1813 - Out of the forest, into the lake - Attack by Ruse and by Storm - Lieutenants, Captains and Commodores - "we have met the enemy" - Star rise and star fall. Afterword. Postscript on careers - Beginnings of the United States Army - Chronology of actions and events in the Northwest - Place names and locations - Notes on sources - Index.