The only known photograph of Chief Seattle, taken in the 1860s

"Chief Sealth" (Ts'ial-la-kum), better known today as Chief Seattle (also Sealth, "Seathle", Seathl or See-ahth) (c. 1786 – June 7, 1866), was a leader of the Suquamish and Duwamish Native American tribes in what is now the U.S. state of Washington. Events 1099 - The First Crusade: The Siege of Jerusalem begins Year 1866 ( MDCCCLXVI) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common The Suquamish are a Native American tribe of Washington State in the United States. The Duwamish tribe (dxʷdɐwʔabʃ in Lushootseed is a Native American tribe in western Washington, and the indigenous people of metropolitan Seattle. Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Washington ( is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. A prominent figure among his people, he pursued a path of accommodation to white settlers, forming a personal relationship with David Swinson "Doc" Maynard. David Swinson "Doc" Maynard ( March 22, 1808 - March 13, 1873) was an American pioneer and doctor one of Seattle Seattle, Washington was named after him.

Biography

Sealth was born around 1786 on or near Blake Island, Washington. Blake Island is an island in Washington state in the United States. His father, Schweabe, was a leader of the Suquamish tribe, and his mother was Wood-sho-lit-sa of the Duwamish^[1]. The Suquamish are a Native American tribe of Washington State in the United States. The Duwamish tribe (dxʷdɐwʔabʃ in Lushootseed is a Native American tribe in western Washington, and the indigenous people of metropolitan Seattle. In later years, Sealth claimed to have seen the ships of the Vancouver Expedition as they explored Puget Sound. The Vancouver Expedition (1791-1795 was a five-year voyage of exploration and diplomacy commanded by Captain George Vancouver. Puget Sound (ˈpjuːʤᵻt is an arm of the Pacific Ocean, connected to the rest of the Pacific by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, in the Pacific Northwest

Sealth earned his reputation at a young age as a leader and a warrior, ambushing and defeating groups of enemy raiders coming up the Green River from the Cascade foothills, and attacking the Chemakum and the S'Klallam, tribes living on the Olympic Peninsula. The Green River is a 65 mile long river in the state of Washington in the United States, arising on the western slopes of the Cascade Mountains south The Jamestown S'Klallam is a Tribe of the S'Klallam or Klallam Native American group on the northern Olympic Peninsula of Washington Geography The Olympic Peninsula is home to some of the only Temperate rain forests in the world including the Hoh, Queets, and Quinault Like many of his contemporaries, he owned slaves captured during his raids. He was tall and broad for a Puget Sound native at nearly six feet; Hudson's Bay Company traders gave him the nickname Le Gros (The Big One). He was also known as an orator; and when he addressed an audience, his voice is said to have carried from his camp to the Stevens Hotel at First and Marion, a distance of 3/4ths of a mile. ^[1]

He took wives from the village of Tola'ltu just southeast of Duwamish Head on Elliott Bay (now part of West Seattle). Duwamish Head is the northernmost point in West Seattle, Washington, jutting into Elliott Bay. Elliott Bay is the body of water on which Seattle Washington is located West Seattle, a hilly district in Seattle, Washington, encompasses all of Seattle west of the Duwamish River. His first wife La-Dalia died after bearing a daughter. A second wife, Olahl, bore him three sons and four daughters^[1]. The most famous of his children was his first, Kikisoblu or Princess Angeline. Princess Angeline (c 1820 - May 31, 1896) also known in Lushootseed as Kikisoblu, Kick-is-om-lo, or Wewick He was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church, and given the baptismal name Noah, probably in 1848 near Olympia, Washington^[2]. In Christianity, baptism ( Greek, "immersing" "performing Ablutions " is the ritual act with the use of water by which one is admitted Olympia is the Capital of Washington and is the County seat of Thurston County. The meaning of this ceremony may be called into question by his references to his people's gods in his most famous speech (below).

For all his skill, Sealth was gradually losing ground to the more powerful Patkanim of the Snohomish when white settlers started showing up in force. Patkanim (variously spelled Pat-ka-nam or Pat Kanim was chief of the Snoqualmoo ( Snoqualmie) and Snohomish tribe in what is now modern Washington State When his people were driven from their traditional clamming grounds, Sealth met Maynard in Olympia; they formed a friendly relationship useful to both. Persuading the settlers at Duwamps to rename the town Seattle, Maynard established their support for Sealth's people and negotiated relatively peaceful relations among the tribes.

Sealth kept his people out of the Battle of Seattle (1856). The Battle of Seattle was a January 26, 1856 attack by Native Americans upon Seattle Washington. Afterwards, he was unwilling to lead his tribe to the reservation established, since mixing Duwamish and Snohomish was likely to lead to bloodshed. Maynard persuaded the government of the necessity of allowing Sealth to remove to his father's longhouse on Agate Passage, 'Old Man House' or Tsu-suc-cub. Agate Pass or Agate Passage is a high-current tidal Strait in Puget Sound connecting Port Madison and Port Orchard. Sealth frequented the town named after him, and had his photograph taken by E. M. Sammis in 1865. ^[1] He died June 7, 1866, on the Suquamish reservation at Port Madison, Washington. Events 1099 - The First Crusade: The Siege of Jerusalem begins Year 1866 ( MDCCCLXVI) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common The Port Madison Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation in northern Kitsap County, Washington.

Legacy

Statue (erected 1908) of Chief Seattle, Tilikum Place, Seattle, Washington. The statue is on the National Register of Historic Places. The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP is the United States government's official list of districts sites buildings structures and objects deemed worthy of

• Sealth's grave site is at the Suquamish Tribal Cemetery. ^[3]
• In 1890, a group of Seattle pioneer lead by Arthur Armstrong Denny set up a monument over his grave, with the inscription "SEATTLE Chief of the Suqamps and Allied Tribes, Died June 7, 1866. Arthur Armstrong Denny ( June 20, 1822 – January 9, 1899) was one of the founders of Seattle, Washington, the acknowledged The Firm Friend of the Whites, and for Him the City of Seattle was Named by Its Founders" On the reverse is the inscription "Baptismal name, Noah Sealth, Age probably 80 years. "^[1] The site was restored and a native sculpture added in 1976.
• The Suquamish Tribe honors Chief Seattle every third week in August at "Chief Seattle Days".
• The city of Seattle, and numerous related features, are named after Sealth.

The Speech Controversy

There is a controversy about a speech by Sealth concerning the concession of native lands to the settlers.

Even the date and location of the speech has been disputed,^[4] but the most common version is that on March 11, 1854, Sealth gave a speech at a large outdoor gathering in Seattle. The meeting had been called by Governor Isaac Ingalls Stevens to discuss the surrender or sale of native land to white settlers. Isaac Ingalls Stevens ( March 25, 1818 &ndash September 1, 1862) was the first Governor of Washington Territory, a Doc Maynard introduced Stevens, who then briefly explained his mission, which was already well understood by all present. David Swinson "Doc" Maynard ( March 22, 1808 - March 13, 1873) was an American pioneer and doctor one of Seattle ^[1]

Sealth then rose to speak. He rested his hand upon the head of the much smaller Stevens, and declaimed with great dignity for an extended period. No one alive today knows what he said; he spoke in the Lushootseed language, and someone translated his words into Chinook Indian trade language, and a third person translated that into English. Lushootseed (also xʷəlšucid, dxʷləšúcid, Puget Salish, Puget Sound Salish, Skagit-Nisqually) is the language or Dialect

Some years later, Dr. Henry A. Smith wrote down an English version of the speech, based on Smith's notes. Dr Henry A Smith ( 1830 - August 16, 1915) was a physician poet legislator and early settler of Seattle, best known today for his flowery translation It was a flowery text in which Sealth purportedly thanked the white people for their generosity, demanded that any treaty guarantee access to Native burial grounds, and made a contrast between the God of the white people and that of his own. Smith noted that he had recorded ". . . but a fragment of his [Sealth's] speech".

In 1891, Frederick James Grant's History of Seattle, Washington reprinted Smith's version. In 1929, Clarence B. Bagley's History of King County, Washington reprinted Grant's version with some additions. In 1931, John M. Rich reprinted the Bagley version in Chief Seattle's Unanswered Challenge. In the 1960s, articles by William Arrowsmith and the growth of environmentalism revived interest in Sealth's speech. William Ayers Arrowsmith (1924–1992 was an American classicist Environmentalism is a broad philosophy and Social movement centered on a concern for the conservation and improvement of the environment. Ted Perry introduced anachronistic material, such as shooting buffalo from trains, into a new version for a movie called "Home"^[5], produced for the Southern Baptist Convention's Christian Radio and Television Commission. The Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC) is a United States -based mostly conservative Christian denomination ^[6] The movie sunk without a trace, but this newest and most fictional version is the most widely known. Albert Furtwangler analyzes the evolution of Sealth's speech in Answering Chief Seattle (1997). ^[7]

The speech attributed to Sealth, as re-written by others, has been widely cited as "powerful, bittersweet plea for respect of Native American rights and environmental values"^[5], but there is little evidence that he actually spoke it. A similar controversy surrounds a purported 1855 letter from Sealth to President Franklin Pierce, which has never been located and, based on internal evidence, is considered "an unhistorical artifact of someone's fertile literary imagination". Franklin Pierce (November 23 1804 &ndash October 8 1869 was an American politician and the fourteenth President of the United States, serving from 1853 to ^[4]

See also

• Battle of Seattle (1856)
• History of Seattle before 1900
• Chief Sealth High School

References

• Murray Morgan, Skid Road, 1951, 1960, and other reprints, ISBN 0-295-95846-4
• William C. ("Bill") Speidel, Doc Maynard, The Man Who Invented Seattle, Nettle Creek Publishing Company, Seattle, 1978.
• Noah Seattle by Chiefseattle.com