Chief Seattle
Chief Noah Seattle (Chief Seattle ( English corruption of Lushootseed Si'ahl ) ) also Sealth, Seathl or Lake ahth (* probably 1786 on Blake Iceland, Washington, † June 7, 1866 in the Suquamish Reservation Washington) was a chief of the Suquamish and Duwamish, two tribes of the coastal Salish. A prominent Indian leaders and major speaker, he pursued a strategy of adaptation to the white settlers. His close personal relationship with David Swinson Maynard was essential for the successful establishment of the city of Seattle, which is named after him.
Seattle is attributed to a widely publicized speech, which has played a certain role in the western ecology movement. The most popular versions only come in small amounts from Seattle itself, essential statements are false and anachronistic.
Life
Born at or on Blake Iceland, the son of Shweabe of the Suquamish and the Wood -sho -lit -sa of the Duwamish, he acquired early great prestige through wars against the Chimakum and the Jamestown - Klallam, its neighbors on the Olympic Peninsula. Like other Indian leaders also he held in his campaigns captured enemies as slaves. For that time, concepts grown large, probably about 1.85 m, the French called him into the Hudson's Bay Company Le Gros. Moreover, his mighty voice allegedly handed over a kilometer wide.
His first wife La - Dalia died after the birth of a daughter, his second wife, Olahl, gave him three sons and four daughters. Both came from Tola'ltu at the Elliott Bay (now in West Seattle ).
Chief Seattle was baptized a Catholic in 1848. The settlers who came increasingly into the country, displaced the trunk of his collection reasons. In addition, he increasingly lost ground to chief Patkanim of the Snohomish. In negotiations in Olympia he met David Swinson Maynard, with whom he formed a friendship soon. Maynard made sure that the settlers in the newly formed Seattle named the settlement after the chief and supported him.
Logically held Seattle his people from the Battle of Seattle out, but refused to lead Duwamish and Snohomish together in a reserve. Maynard persuaded the government to allow the old chief to return to the longhouse of his father in the Agate Passage, which was known as Tus - suc - cub or Old Man House. Seattle visited the city named after him and had his photo taken by EM Sammis in 1864. Two years later, he died on June 7 in the Suquamish Reservation at Port Madison.
The alleged speech of Chief Seattle
Chief Seattle is best known for the speech he made at a hearing in front of Isaac Ingalls Stevens, the Governor of Washington Territory, held in January 1854. The fact of the speech and its duration of about half an hour are documented by a first time 33 years later, in 1887, by Henry A. Smith in the Seattle Sunday Star newspaper published articles, other sources for this purpose, there are none. Smith stated therein to have the speech excerpts reproduced based on notes.
Already in this text strong doubts about the accuracy of Smith's tradition came on. Although Smith is credible that he was present at Seattle's speech, but he has Seattle poorly understood, as this gave the speech is not in English, but in his own language. A translation should it - if at all - only excerpts in English or have been likely in Chinook. Thus, the floral and heroic formulations considered working Smiths. Notes on ecology and nature destruction is still missing completely in this version. A central point of the speech is rather the importance of the country for the ancestors and funerary cult of the Indians, a central and probably authentic sentence would read something like: ". Every part of this country is sacred to my people "
A second version of the speech originated in the 1960s when William Arrowsmith transferred the first version in a more modern English, without changing the content.
Popular talk but was only with the third version, which came into circulation in the 1970s and 1980s. She has only very low similarity with the first version and was founded in 1972 by Ted Perry for a television film about ecology ( Home) written Clear instructions on the ahistorical texts are in speech occurring details that can not come from the real life of Seattle, such as the nightjar bird or the bison, which did not exist in Seattle's home, or the railroad that was built long after the conclusion of the contract. This version, and basing much shorter than fourth variant, Chief Seattle represent imaginatively as an early environmental visionary who talks about the insights of his people in the essence of nature and of man.
This modern version fascinated many people and thus gained strong importance for the environmental movement, was the speech of Chief Seattle for the same as the alleged prophecy of the Cree into a modern myth. The Chief Seattle Speech was also set to music. Well-known German musical settings come from the group of poetry and music with René Bardet, Büdi Siebert and Joe Koinzer entitled Perhaps because I am a savage (1982) and by Hannes Wader We shall see on the album glow on the horizon (1985).
Remembrance
7 June in the calendar of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.