Chief Seattle

Chief Seattle of the Suquamish and Duwamish tribes was born in the 1780s on the Kitsap Peninsula in Washington state, and died on June 7, 1866 on the Suquamish Reservation at Port Madison, Washington[?]. His father was Schweabe of the Suquamish tribe, and his mother Scholitza of the Duwamish. Seattle, Washington was named after him.

Chief Seattle's grave marker reads "Seattle, Chief of the Suquamps and Allied Tribes, Died June 7, 1866. Firm Friend of the Whites, and For Him the City of Seattle was Named by Its Founders," and, on the reverse, "Baptismal Name: Noah Sealth, Age probably 80 years."

Chief Seattle's Reply

A famous speech given by Chief Seattle in 1854 was reported in 1887. It is most usually called Seattle's Reply since it was a response to a proposed treaty (which Seattle advised accepting).

A second version was edited into more modern language by William Arrowsmith in the 1960s.

The speech became famous again when a third version of it began to circulate in the 1980s. The newest version appears to bear little resemblance to the old, and is widely believed to be the work of Ted Perry, an East Coast scriptwriter, for a 1972 ABC film about ecology called "Home". This version casts Chief Seattle as an early ecological visionary, speaking of the insights of his people into the workings of nature, and caused him to be cited as a role model of the environmental movement (rightfully or not).

A shortened version of the third version is also circulating.

External links

• One version of Chief Seattle's speech (http://www.halcyon.com/arborhts/chiefsea)
• About the four versions (http://www.synaptic.bc.ca/ejournal/wslibrry.htm)
• Urban legends archive on this (http://www.urbanlegends.com/misc/chief_seattle_environment_speech)