Cheeseekau better known as Matthew, was a war chief of the Kispoko

Kispoko

Kispoko is the name of one of the five divisions of the Shawnee, a Native American people that existed during the 18th century. The Kispoko were the smallest of the five divisions. They lived among the Creek as early at 1650, having been driven from their Ohio country homeland by the Iroquois...

 division of the Shawnee

Shawnee

The Shawnee, Shaawanwaki, Shaawanooki and Shaawanowi lenaweeki, are an Algonquian-speaking people native to North America. Historically they inhabited the areas of Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Western Maryland, Kentucky, Indiana, and Pennsylvania...

 Nation. Also known as Pepquannakek (Gunshot), Popoquan (Gun), Sting, and Chiksika. He was also known as "The Shawnee Warrior" by the Cherokee

Cherokee

The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...

. Although primarily remembered as the eldest brother and mentor of Tecumseh

Tecumseh

Tecumseh was a Native American leader of the Shawnee and a large tribal confederacy which opposed the United States during Tecumseh's War and the War of 1812...

, who became famous after Cheeseekau's death, Cheeseekau was a well-known leader in his own time, a contemporary of Blue Jacket

Blue Jacket

Blue Jacket or Weyapiersenwah was a war chief of the Shawnee people, known for his militant defense of Shawnee lands in the Ohio Country...

.

Few details are known about Cheeseekau's early life. He may have been born along the Tallapoosa River

Tallapoosa River

The Tallapoosa River runs from the southern end of the Appalachian Mountains in Georgia, in the United States, southward and westward into Alabama. It is formed by the confluence of McClendon Creek and Mud Creek in Paulding County, Georgia. Lake Martin at Alexander City, Alabama is a large and...

 in what is now Alabama

Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

. His parents, Puckeshinwa and Methoataaskee, moved north to the Ohio Country

Ohio Country

The Ohio Country was the name used in the 18th century for the regions of North America west of the Appalachian Mountains and in the region of the upper Ohio River south of Lake Erie...

 around the time of his birth. After Pukeshinwa's death in the Battle of Point Pleasant

Battle of Point Pleasant

The Battle of Point Pleasant, known as the Battle of Kanawha in some older accounts, was the only major battle of Dunmore's War. It was fought on October 10, 1774, primarily between Virginia militia and American Indians from the Shawnee and Mingo tribes...

 in 1774, Cheeseekau assumed much of the responsibility for his younger brothers, including Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa

Tenskwatawa

Tenskwatawa, was a Native American religious and political leader of the Shawnee tribe, known as The Prophet or the Shawnee Prophet. He was the brother of Tecumseh, leader of the Shawnee...

.

During the American Revolutionary War

American Revolutionary War

The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...

 (1775–1783), Cheeseekau joined with those Shawnees who allied themselves with the British and sought to drive the American settlers out of Kentucky

Kentucky

The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...

. After the war, as Americans expanded into Ohio, in 1788 Cheeseekau led a group of Shawnees to Missouri. American colonists were moving to Missouri too, and so Cheeseekau instead resettled his band at the village of Running Water

Running Water

Running Water may be:* Running Water, Tennessee, former name of Whiteside, Tennessee* Running Water, South Dakota, a community in Bon Homme County, South Dakota* "Running Water" from the 1983 album The Present...

 on the Tennessee River

Tennessee River

The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately 652 miles long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other names...

 near Lookout Mountain

Lookout Mountain

thumb|right|See seven statesLookout Mountain is located at the northwest corner of the U.S. state of Georgia, the northeast corner of Alabama, and along the southern border of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Lookout Mountain, along with Sand Mountain to the northwest, makes up a large portion of the...

. There he joined Dragging Canoe

Dragging Canoe

Tsiyu Gansini , "He is dragging his canoe", known to whites as Dragging Canoe, was a Cherokee war chief who led a band of Cherokee against colonists and United States settlers...

's militant Chickamauga

Chickamauga Indian

The Chickamauga or Lower Cherokee, were a band of Cherokee who supported Great Britain at the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. They were followers of the Cherokee chief Dragging Canoe...

, fighting against American expansion. He died on April 30, 1792, after being mortally wounded during an attack on Buchannan's Station, a frontier fort near Nashville,TN.

Sources

• Eckert, Allan W. A Sorrow in Our Heart: The Life of Tecumseh. (New York: Bantam, 1992).
• Sugden, John. Tecumseh: A Life. New York: Holt, 1997. ISBN 0-8050-4138-9 (hardcover); ISBN 0-8050-6121-5 (1999 paperback).
• Sugden, John. "Cheeseekau". American National Biography. 4:767–68. Ed. John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-19-512783-8.