Blue Jacket

Blue Jacket (ca. 1743-ca. 1808), or Waweyapiersenwaw, was the most influential Native American leader of his time. He was the galvanising force behind an intertribal confederacy of unparalleled scope that fought a long and bloody war against white encroachments into their homeland in the Ohio River valley. Blue Jacket was an astute strategist and diplomat who, though courted by American and British leaders, remained a staunch defender of the Shawnees' independence and territory. He fielded large forces (his warriors inflicted greater losses upon the American army than those of Cochise, Geronimo, Red Cloud, Crazy Horse, and Sitting Bull combined), won unprecedented military and diplomatic victories, and during his later years inspired and mentored the legendary Tecumseh. In this arresting and controversial account, John Sugden, the acclaimed biographer of Tecumseh, restores Blue Jacket to his rightful place of prominence in American history. John Sugden is an independent scholar and a former associate editor of Oxford University Press's American National Biography project. His books include "Tecumseh: A Life", winner of the Society for Military History Distinguished Book Award.