Re: Famous chiefs for two please

[Ron Force <rforce@moscow.com>]

"Robert C. Tindall" wrote:

> You're up, Ron.  Here's another remanufactured legened for you.

Semi-legendary, anyway.  Here's part of the story from the New York Times, April
21,1992.    I can't post the whole thing, as it's copyright.

"Copyright 1992 The New York Times Company The New York Times

April 21, 1992, Tuesday, Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section A; Page 1; Column 5; National Desk
HEADLINE: Chief's Speech of 1854 Given New Meaning (and Words)

BYLINE: By TIMOTHY EGAN, Special to The New York Times

DATELINE: SEATTLE, April 20

BODY: Since his death in 1866, Chief Seattle has grown in fame and stature to a
point where he has become a sort of Abraham Lincoln of American Indians, a gifted
orator and visionary leader... <snip>

By most accounts, Seattle the man was a great speaker and skilled diplomat. Born
in 1786, his real name, in the Lushootseed language, was See-ahth, which the
whites found nearly impossible to pronounce.

Seattle was also a warrior with a considerable reputation for daring raids on
other Indian tribes. After smallpox wiped out many of his people, he realized the
inevitablity of the coming tide of white settlement. In 1854, he made his speech
on the differences between the Indian way of life and white way of life to more
than a thousand of his people gathered to greet the Government's Indian
superintendent, Isaac Stevens. Most historians agree that the speech was
delivered in the Salish dialect. A year later, the chief signed a treaty with the
United States Government, ceding much of the area on which the city of Seattle
now stands.

The National Archives contains two short documents attributed to Seattle. In
both, he talks about accepting the treaty and how his people are looking forward
to receiving the things promised by the government.

Mr. Buerge said he believed the Smith translation, which mentioned nothing about
the whites ravaging the environment, is close, in spirit at least, to what
Seattle really said.

By most accounts, the speech was stirring, carried by the chief's strong voice.
He died in 1866, at the age of 80, one year after the city named for him passed a
law making it illegal for Indians to live in Seattle."

Here's an excerpt from the July 1, 1991 Seattle Times article on the speech:
Copyright 1991 The Seattle Times Company The Seattle Times

July 1, 1991, Monday, Final Edition

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A1

LENGTH: 1149 words

HEADLINE: MYTH-QUOTED: WORDS OF CHIEF SEATTLE WERE ELOQUENT - BUT NOT HIS

BYLINE: BY ROSS ANDERSON
<snip>
"...But myth dies hard. Especially a myth that serves the ends of a vibrant
environmental movement. Rick Caldwell, the librarian at the Museum of History and
Industry, has become something of an authority on what Chief Seattle, also known
as Chief Sealth, did not say - and why. Here, he says, is what is known: In 1854,
an aging Chief Seattle attended a reception for territorial Gov. Isaac Stevens,
who was trying to buy Puget Sound lands from the Indians. The chief, who spoke no
English, delivered a speech, which supposedly was translated by pioneer Dr. Henry
A. Smith. And in 1887, Smith published the speech in a Seattle newspaper. "There
was a time when our people covered the whole land as the waves of a wind-ruffled
sea covers its shell-paved floor," Seattle was reported to have said in his
native Duwamish language. "But that time has long since passed away. . . . I will
not mourn over our untimely decay, nor reproach my paleface brothers for
hastening it, for we too may have been somewhat to blame. . . . "Our dead never
forget the beautiful world that gave them being. They still love its winding
rivers, its great mountains and its sequestered vales, and they ever yearn in
tenderest affection over the lonely-hearted living, and often return to visit and
comfort them . . . "Every part of this country is sacred to my people. Every
hillside, every valley, every plain and grove has been hallowed by some fond
memory." And so forth. Nice speech. But even that translation is questionable,
Caldwell says. "Dr. Smith claimed to speak Duwamish, but one wonders. . . . He
had only been in the Northwest for a year," Caldwell explains. "Smith has been
referred to as a poet of no ordinary talent. So you have to wonder if those were
Chief Seattle's words, or Smith's." Still, Smith's has been the authorized
version, accepted by local historians from Clarence Bagley to Roger Sale." <snip>



Ron  Force                                                   rforce@moscow.com
Moscow, Idaho U.S.A.