The Family of Tecumseh & Tenskwatawa

We are accustomed to seeing paintings of Tecumseh in his youth, but Tenskwatawa in his advanced years. These drawings show a rather different picture of the two brothers at about the same age in the years leading up to the War of 1812.

                                               You might want to read the following pages first:

The Family of Tecumseh - An Introductory Essay

 

Tenskwatawa The Shawnee Prophet - Holy Man or Charlatan

Each of the members of the family of Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa are listed on a separate card below. Each card will be put online separately, making corrections as necessary. Please be patient until they are all posted.

The cards will be added one by one as time permits, so please come back often.

 

 

Puckeshinwau

 

 

Full Name (preferred spelling):

Translations:

 

Puckshinwa 'Alights from Flying'

"Something that drops" (B. Drake); "I light from flying" (S. Drake)

 

Other variants:

Abbreviated form:

Nickname:

 

Puckeshinwa, Pucksinwah, Pukshinwa, Pukeesheno, Pekishinoah, Pooksehnwe, etc

None known

None known

 

Phonetic transcription:

Linguistic analysis:

 

Pakshinwa or Pakishinwa (verb)

'he alights from flying'

{pak(-i)-} 'movement away from another place or position; throw away, drop, turn loose, let go'. + {sh-i-n} 'reclining, coming to rest' +  {-wa} 'he, she, it' (third person, animate). -shinwa is one of several common male name endings.

 

{pakshinwa} is attested as a verb form (SS:76), but various spellings indicate the name might possibly have included the formative "-i-".

 

Ethnicity:

Marriage:

Children

 

Creek father; Shawnee mother

Methoataske, Shawnee; Pekowi division. 

At least 6 sons and 1 daughter

 

LIFE:

 

 Puckshinwa was most likely born about 1720 and raised in the Creek country (present Alabama). His father was Creek and his mother was a Shawnee (McKenney and Hall, vol. iii). From his mother's lineage he was of the Kishpoko division, probably brought up in the village of Souvanogee among his mother's people, either because his father died while he was young or because among the Creeks the husband goes to live with the wife's people. Puckshinwa married a Shawnee woman, Methoataske, who was probably a member of Chartier's band who went to Creek country in 1748. They must have been married shortly after this, for they had two children (Cheeseekau and Tecumapease) before the mass migration of the Shawnee from Alabama to the Ohio in 1758-59.  A second son, Sauseekau, was born during the migration northward. They moved near the French fort in the Illinois country and in 1768 they moved to the area of Piqua with Tecumseh, the third son, being born just outside of this village during this journey.

 

NOTES:

1. Metaphorically, his name probably alludes to the sacred water panther (manetowim'shipeshi 'powerful' + m'shipeshi 'panther') -- a mythical creature that leaps out of the ocean at nightfall and flies across the skies from east to west, plunging back into the sea at sunrise. His whiskers create sparks that are meteors or shooting stars. Puckshiwa's name would allude to the plunge back into the sea.  (See Tecumseh's name for a similar metaphorical meaning.) This identifies him as belonging to the Panther clan. Similar names often refer to a member of one of the fowl clans, such as the Eagle clan, alighting on a branch.

2. Puckshinwa must not be confused with Paxinosa 'Hard Striker' (Paxnous, Paxinos, etc.). a well-known chief in Pennsylvania who is a generation older than Puckshinwa. Paxinosa was married to a Moravian convert named Elizabeth, and he died in 1761, seven years before Tecumseh was born. The names, despite their similarity, have different etymologies.

 


 
 

 

Methoataaskee

 

 

Full Name (preferred spelling):

Translations:

 

Methotaske

'(One who) Lays Eggs in the Sand'

'A turtle laying eggs in the sand' (B. Drake)

 

Other variants:

Abbreviated form:

Nickname:

 

Meetheetashe (S. G. Drake), Methotase, Methoatase.

None known

None known

 

Phonetic transcription:

Linguistic analysis:

 

*Miithooteshki / *Miithooteshi

'(One who) voids something new, fresh (eggs) by bodily movement'.

{miithi- 'to void, evacuate, defecate' } + {-oote} 'mobility, directional movement' + {-shki} 'raw, soft, wet' (see hashiski 'earth, land, dirt, sand'). Less likely, some spelling variants suggest the common female ending ??shi ?reclining, laying, coming to rest?; miithi- normally means ?defecate?, but it would seem to have a wider meaning.

 

The initial stem fits phonetically: miithi- + oote = miithoote-shki, but it is unattested; it is not literal, as in the words weewaawita 'one who is laying eggs' or howaawiiki 'they laid eggs'.  The meaning is metaphorical pertaining to the movements of a turtle when voiding eggs in the sand.

 

Ethnicity:

Marriage:

Children:

 

Shawnee by father and mother; Pekowi division, Turtle clan.

Puckeshinwa, Kishpoko division, Panther clan.

At least 6 sons and 1 or 2 daughters

 

LIFE:  A tentative reconstruction.

 

Probably born in Pennsylvania in Peter Chartier?s band and moved to Creek country with his band and others in 1748.  Married shortly afterwards and had a son and a daughter (Cheeseekau, Tecumapease) prior to their moving northward in 1758-59 to the valley of the Scioto, having another son during the journey (Sauwaseekau).  She may have had another daughter born shortly 1768 (Menewaulakoosee).  Methotaske gave birth to Tecumseh on a subsequent move to Mad River in early 1768.  Between 1768 and 1774 she had two sons (Kumskaka and Nahaseemo). After the death of her husband in 1774, she gave birth to triplets, two of whom died shortly after birth.  One son, Laulewasika (Tenskwatawa, the Shawnee Prophet) survived as the youngest child.  She removed for a time to Old Piqua where seems to have been at the time of Clarke?s battle of 1780.  She may have removed briefly to the Missouri settlements on Apple Creek about this time, later going with her elder son Cheeseekau and Tecumseh to the Chickamauga villages where she lived until she died at an advanced age.  This would yielded six sons and one or two daughters who survived to adulthood, and two who died as infants and one son, Nahaseemo, may have died young.

 

NOTES:

The stem with the spelling meth- occurs in other names, but without an English gloss to aid us.  The other possibility is meth- ?as a whole, uninterrupted (in extent)?, but this does not seem to provide the right sense.

The notion that Methotaske was a Cherokee or a white captive derive from late speculations probably stemming from Benjamin Draper?s note that she died at an old age among the Cherokee and from about three different family traditions that a white captive ancestor was married to Puckshinwa.  These problems are dealt with elsewhere on this website.