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b'The conquest of Indian land in the eastern United States happened through decades of the U.S. government\\u2019s military victories, along with questionable treaties and violence. This conflict between two civilization came to head in 1813 in a little-known but consequential struggle between two extraordinary leaders.

William Henry Harrison was born to a prominent Virginia family, the son of a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He journeyed west, became governor of the vast Indiana Territory, and sought statehood by attracting settlers and imposing one-sided treaties.

Tecumseh, by all accounts one of the nineteenth century\\u2019s greatest leaders, belonged to an honored line of Shawnee warriors and chiefs. His father, killed while fighting the Virginians flooding into Kentucky, extracted a promise from his sons to \\u201cnever give in\\u201d to American settkers . An eloquent speaker, Tecumseh traveled from Minnesota to Florida and west to the Great Plains convincing far-flung tribes to join a great confederacy and face down their common enemy. Eager to stop U.S. expansion, the British backed Tecumseh\\u2019s confederacy in a series of battles during the forgotten western front of the War of 1812 that would determine control over the North American continent.

Today\\u2019s guest, Peter Stark, discusses these battles and diplomacy. He\\u2019s the author of \\u201cGallop Toward the Sun: Tecumseh and William Henry Harrison\\u2019s Struggle for the Destiny of a Nation.\\u201d
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