How factual is the famous Chief Seattle speech?
Go on the Internet and type in “Chief Seattle Speech.” Your screen will be filled with references to it, a text that adorns posters and has been adopted by environmentalists and Native Americans. Chief Seattle supposedly told whites in 1855, “At night, when the streets of your cities and villages will be silent and you think them deserted, they will throng with returning hosts that once filled them and still love this beautiful land. “The white man will never be alone. Let him be just and deal kindly with my people, for the dead are not powerless. Dead – did I say? There is no death. Only a change of worlds.” It’s doubtful that Seattle actually said those exact eloquent words, but more likely they were the interpretation of his friend, Dr. Henry Smith, who published the speech more than 30 years after Seattle gave it. Perhaps the best way to think of it is as a legend of the Duwamish people, one that has powerful meaning to them. A great chief’s sad end By the time Chief Seattle was in
