The Speech Of Chief Seattle

Chief Seattle, 1786-1866, was Northwest coast Indian of the Suquami tribe and should give name to the city of Seattle. He played an important part of the whites peace treaties. As a prelude to negotiating treaties with the United States, he delivered a speech to Governor Stevens in 1854 and it is this speech that is called "Chief Seattle's speech." Chief Seattle's beautiful speech from 1854 have through the ages been interpreted and construed in many ways. Here you have the opportunity to read the speech in its two main versions. Ted Perrys version of the Speech. And Henry A. Smidts version of the Speech published in Seattle Sunday Star October 29, 1887.

This moving oration is one of the greatest statements ever made regarding the relationship between a people and the Earth. It is the most widely quoted speech by a Native American.

Over the years, Chief Seattle's famous speech has been embellished, popularized, and carved into many a monument, but its origins have remained inadequately explained. Understood as a symbolic encounter between indigenous America, represented by Chief Seattle, and industrialized or imperialist America, represented by Isaac L Stevens, the first governor of Washington Territory, it was first published in a Seattle newspaper in 1887 by a pioneer who claimed he had heard Seattle (or Sealth) deliver it in the 1850s. No other record of the speech has been found, and Isaac Stevens's writings do not mention it Yet it has long been taken seriously as evidence of a voice crying out of the wilderness of the American past. Answering Chief Seattle presents the full and accurate text of the 1887 version and traces the distortions of later versions in order to explain the many layers of its mystery. This book also asks how the speech could be heard and answered, by reviewing its many contexts. Mid-century ideas about land, newcomers, ancestors, and future generations informed the ways Stevens and his contemporaries understood Chief Seattle and recreated him as a legendary figure.

This is the first thorough historical account of Chief Seattle and his times--the story of a half-century of tremendous flux, turmoil, and violence, during which a native American war leader became an advocate for peace and strove to create a successful hybrid racial community. When the British, Spanish, and then Americans arrived in the Pacific Northwest, it may have appeared to them as an untamed wilderness. In fact, it was a fully settled and populated land. Chief Seattle was a powerful representative from this very ancient world. Historian David Buerge has been researching and writing this book about the world of Chief Seattle for the past 20 years. Buerge has threaded together disparate accounts of the time from the 1780s to the 1860s--including native oral histories, Hudson Bay Company records, pioneer diaries, French Catholic church records, and historic newspaper reporting. Chief Seattle had gained power and prominence on Puget Sound as a war leader, but the arrival of American settlers caused him to reconsider his actions. He came to embrace white settlement and, following traditional native practice, encouraged intermarriage between native people and the settlers, offering his own daughter and granddaughters as brides, in the hopes that both peoples would prosper. Included in this account are the treaty signings that would remove the natives from their historic lands, the roles of such figures as Governor Isaac Stevens, Chiefs Leschi and Patkanim, the Battle at Seattle that threatened the existence of the settlement, and the controversial Chief Seattle speech that haunts to this day the city that bears his name.

A Suquamish Indian chief describes his people's respect and love for the earth and concern for its destruction.

The origins of this book began with a discussion Eli Gifford had with Professor Edward Castillo, Department Chair of Native American Studies at Sonoma State University, about the historical inconsistencies in the environmental version of Chief Seattle's speech. Castillo recommended that Eli turn it into a research project. From there it evolved into a master thesis. Afterwards, Eli co-wrote How Can One Sell the Air? to correct the prevailing belief that Seattle actually spoke the words of the environmental speech. Using primary and secondary sources, this book explores the history behind the various agendas each author had in manipulating Seathl's speech. What is unique about this book is that the author was able to speak to the three key people who were involved in the environmental version: Professor William Arrowsmith, Professor Ted Perry, Producer John Stevens and to accurately tell their story. They were able to resolve unanswered questions. Both Arrowsmith and Stevens have since died. Professor Ted Perry, the original author of the environmental version, has played an integral part in unraveling the history of the environmental version. In the foreword he wrote: "The most thorough account of Seattle's speech, its origins and influence. Very impressive and very intelligent . . . That I am extremely indebted to the work of Eli Gifford is a great understatement, but I am certainly not the only reader who will be very grateful." Producer John Stevens who edited Perry's version wrote, "You [Eli] are the first person to accurately reflect my role in the editing of Chief Seattle's speech."

Remarkable for their eloquence, depth of feeling, and oratorical mastery, these 82 compelling speeches encompass five centuries of Indian encounters with nonindigenous people. Beginning with a 1540 refusal by a Timucua chief to parley with Hernando de Soto ("With such a people I want no peace"), the collection extends to the 20th-century address of activist Russell Means to the United Nations affiliates and members of the Human Rights Commission ("We are people who love in the belly of the monster"). Other memorable orations include Powhatan's "Why should you destroy us, who have provided you with food?" (1609); Red Jacket's "We like our religion, and do not want another" (1811); Osceola's "I love my home, and will not go from it" (1834); Red Cloud's "The Great Spirit made us both" (1870); Chief Joseph's "I will fight no more forever" (1877); Sitting Bull's "The life my people want is a life of freedom" (1882); and many more. Other notable speakers represented here include Tecumseh, Seattle, Geronimo, and Crazy Horse, as well as many lesser-known leaders. Graced by forceful metaphors and vivid imagery expressing emotions that range from the utmost indignation to the deepest sorrow, these addresses are deeply moving documents that offer a window into the hearts and minds of Native Americans as they struggled against the overwhelming tide of European and American encroachment. This inexpensive edition, with informative notes about each speech and orator, will prove indispensable to anyone interested in Native American history and culture.

The teachings of the Native Americans provide a connection with the land, the environment, and the simple beauties of life. This collection of writings from revered Native Americans offers timeless, meaningful lessons on living and learning. Taken from writings, orations, and recorded observations of life, this book selects the best of Native American wisdom and distills it to its essence in short, digestible quotes — perhaps even more timely now than when they were first written. In addition to the short passages, this edition includes the complete Soul of an Indian, as well as other writings by Ohiyesa (Charles Alexander Eastman), one of the great interpreters of American Indian thought, and three great speeches by Chiefs Joseph, Seattle, and Red Jacket.