Orson Scott Card
I really like alternate history novels when they cause me to go back and look up the actual history from the time of the story, and Red Prophet did exactly that.
In Red Prophet, Tecumseh, spelled Ta-Kumsaw in the book, and Tenskwatawa, Tenskwa-Tawa, are truly the main characters. If we look at the books at part of the Tales of Alvin Maker, then the book is more about Alvin learns and experiences than about what he does. Now you should not take that to mean that he is a minor character, just that the real story here is of the two Native American brothers, a story which Alvin sees first hand, well most of it, and has his part to play.
One of the big things that Alvin learns is how the Native Americans feel the land. It sounds like some of the mumbo-jumbo we hear about how the Native Americans are one with the land, but here is not just a metaphysical...wish (for want of a better term), in Card's world, it is quite real. The branches part as they pass, the twig beneath their feet softens so that it does not snap. Their ability to pass swiftly and silently through the wild is not an advanced wood craft that anyone can learn, it is part of their direct relationship with the land, and clearly akin to the magical knacks that the white men have.
Along the way, we meet more historical figures, like the Marquis de Lafayette, Napoleon Bonaparte, and William Henry Harrison. Harrison is a real bastard in the book, so much so that the author offers what might almost be an apology in the forward, pointing out that Harrison seems to have been a much nicer man in real life.
Alvin learns the way of the Native Americans, but in the end cannot stop the defeat of Tecumseh, though he does save his life. After all his adventures, and all he has learned, Alvin returns home, and we must wait until the next book to learn what comes next for Alvin.
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