Person Record
Metadata
Name |
Chief Seattle |
Othernames |
Noah Seattle See-at-la |
Born |
c. 1786 |
Birthplace |
Puget Sound |
Deceased |
1866 |
Deceased where |
Puget Sound |
Nationality |
Suquamish |
Places of residence |
Puget Sound |
Occupation |
Leader |
Titles & honors |
Chief |
Notes |
Chief Seattle gave his famous speech in December 1854 in downtown Seattle, when he was in his late fifties or early sixties. The only known version of this speech comes from the pen of Dr. Henry A. Smith, a settler and amateur writer who was present and took notes at the time. But waited 30 years before he transcribed his notes on the speech. Smith also did not speak coastal Salish, the language of Chief Seattle, so no one knows whether someone present during the speech translated Chief Seattle's words into Chinook, a Northwest Coast trade language, which Smith did speak, but only haltingly. All we know is that "Chief Seattle's" speech, as Smith rendered it from his 30-year-old notes, contains common 19th-century English-language rhetorical flourishes that make it sound suspiciously like Smith made up at least part of it--and maybe all of it. http://www.chiefseattle.com/history/chiefseattle/chief.htm |
