In that treaty, the British had ceded their claims to the territory south of the Great Lakes to the Americans without any meaningful protection for the Native peoples who had been British allies and who occupied those territories.

The Native nations who had fought alongside the British in the Revolutionary War were simply abandoned in the peace settlement.

Tecumseh was aware of this history.

He was not naive about British motivations.

But he made the calculation that British support in the short term was better than the alternative — facing the Americans without any major power backing.

The calculation was reasonable given the options available.

But it meant that the confederacy’s success depended on the British winning the war or forcing a favorable peace, and that the British would press for Native land rights as part of any peace settlement.