The treaties that followed were often coercive, deceptive, or both.

American negotiators would identify Native leaders who were either genuinely willing to sell land or who had been pressured, bribed, or manipulated into signing agreements.

Once signed, the treaties were held to be legally binding on all members of the nation, regardless of whether they had agreed.

This is the system that Tecumseh opposed.

His argument was elegantly simple: the land belonged to all the Native peoples together, in the same way that the air and water belonged to all.

No individual chief had the authority to sign away what belonged to everyone.