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, 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. A prominent figure among his people, he pursued a path of accommodation to white settlers, forming a personal relationship with David Swinson "Doc" Maynard. Seattle, Washington was named after the Chief. Only known photo of Chief Seattle (Museum of History and Industry) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Only known photo of Chief Seattle (Museum of History and Industry) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... is the 158th day of the year (159th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1866 (MDCCCLXVI) is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... Suquamish woman photographed by Edward S. Curtis in 1913. ... Duwamish (the People of the Inside) is a Native American tribe in western Washington. ... This article is about the people indigenous to the United States. ... For other uses of terms redirecting here, see US (disambiguation), USA (disambiguation), and United States (disambiguation) Motto In God We Trust(since 1956) (From Many, One; Latin, traditional) Anthem The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington, D.C. Largest city New York City National language English (de facto)1 Demonym American... For the capital city of the United States, see Washington, D.C.. For other uses, see Washington (disambiguation). ... Pioneer and doctor David Swinson Doc Maynard (1808 - March 13, 1873) settled in Seattle when it was still a small village called Duwamps. ... Seattle redirects here. ...

Biography

Sealth was born around 1786 on or near Blake Island, Washington. His father, Schweabe, was a leader of the Suquamish tribe, and his mother was Wood-sho-lit-sa of the Duwamish^[1]. In later years, Sealth claimed to have seen the ships of the Vancouver Expedition as they explored Puget Sound. Blake Island is an island in Washington state. ... Suquamish woman photographed by Edward S. Curtis in 1913. ... Duwamish (the People of the Inside) is a Native American tribe in western Washington. ... The Vancouver Expedition (1791-1795) was a five-year voyage of exploration and diplomacy, commanded by Captain George Vancouver. ...

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. 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] The Green River is a 60-mile-long river in the state of Washington in the United States. ... “Cascades” redirects here. ... Chemakum (English pronunciation: [ˈʧɛməkəm]) (also written as Chimakum or Chimacum) were a Native American group that once lived on western Washington states Olympic Peninsula. ... SKlallam is a Native American tribe in western Washington state in the United States. ... The Olympic Peninsula is the large arm of land in western Washington state that lies across Puget Sound from Seattle. ... Look up orator in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

He took wives from the village of Tola'ltu just southeast of Duwamish Head on Elliott Bay (now part of West Seattle). 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. He was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church, and given the baptismal name Noah, probably in 1848 near Olympia, Washington^[2] but the meaning of this ceremony may be called into question by his references to his people's gods in his most famous speech (below). West Seattle Duwamish Head is the northernmost point in West Seattle, Washington, jutting into Elliott Bay. ... Elliott Bay as viewed from Queen Anne Hill. ... West Seattle West Seattle, a hilly district in Seattle, Washington, encompasses all of Seattle west of the Duwamish River. ... Princess Angeline in a photograph by Edward Sheriff Curtis Princess Angeline (c. ... This article is about the Christian religious act of Baptism. ... Catholic Church redirects here. ... Coordinates: , Country State County Thurston Incorporated January 28, 1859 Government  - Mayor Mark Foutch Area  - Total 18. ...

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. 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. 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. ...

Sealth kept his people out of the Battle of Seattle (1856). 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. 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. The Battle of Seattle was a January 26, 1856 attack by Native Americans upon Seattle. ... is the 158th day of the year (159th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1866 (MDCCCLXVI) is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... The Port Madison Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation in North Kitsap County, Washington. ...

Legacy

Statue (erected 1908) of Chief Seattle, Tilikum Place, Seattle, Washington. The statue is on the National Register of Historic Places.

• 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. 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 most recent 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.

Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 451 × 599 pixelsFull resolution‎ (2,120 × 2,816 pixels, file size: 1. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 451 × 599 pixelsFull resolution‎ (2,120 × 2,816 pixels, file size: 1. ... A typical plaque showing entry on the National Register of Historic Places. ... Arthur A. Denny (1822 – 1899) was an early founder of Seattle, Washington (see Denny Party), and a member of the territorial legislature. ...

The Speech Controversy

There is a controversy about a speech by Sealth concerning the concession of native lands to the settlers. Image File history File links Wikisource-logo. ... The original Wikisource logo. ...

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. Doc Maynard introduced Stevens, who then briefly explained his mission, which was already well understood by all present.^[1] Isaac Ingalls Stevens (March 25, 1818 - September 1, 1862) was the first governor of Washington Territory, and served as a brigadier general in the Union Army during the Civil War until his death at the Battle of Chantilly. ... Pioneer and doctor David Swinson Doc Maynard (1808 - March 13, 1873) settled in Seattle when it was still a small village called Duwamps. ...

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.

Some years later, Dr. Henry A. Smith wrote down an English version of the speech, based on Smith's notes. 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". Dr. Henry A. Smith (1830-1915) was a poet, doctor and early settler of Seattle, best known today for writing a flowery translation of a speech by Chief Seattle (or Sealth) that is still in print. ...

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. 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.^[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] William Ayers Arrowsmith (1924–1992) was an American classicist. ... The historic Blue Marble photograph, which helped bring environmentalism to the public eye. ... The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a United States-based Christian denomination that consists of numerous agencies including six seminaries, two mission boards and a variety of other organizations such as: the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, which can act for the SBC ad interim between annual meetings...

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".^[4]

See also

• Battle of Seattle (1856)
• History of Seattle before 1900

The Battle of Seattle was a January 26, 1856 attack by Native Americans upon Seattle. ... Two conflicting perspectives exist for the early history of Seattle. ...

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