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> Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 20:22:50 -0700 (PDT)
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> Subject: [PEN-L:10203] Re: Letter from Chief Sealth 1855
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> The Chief Seattle speech is a hoax. Chief Seattle never wrote a letter to
> Pierce at all. He did make a speech on the Port Elliot Treaty of 1855, entitled
> "The Indian's Night Promises to be Dark". It was tranlated by Dr. Henry Smith
> and is to be found in " INDIAN ORATORY: FAMOUS SPEECHES BY NOTED INDIAN
> CHIEFTAINS( Norman: U. of Oklahoma Press, 1971 Ppp. 118-122). The famous
> environmental speech was written by Ted Perry, a screen writer, for a film
> called HOME. The words were written in 1971-72. Perry used the name of
> CHief Seattle in the body of the text, and he did use the original speech as a
> model. Perry expected to be given credit for the text but he wasn't as the
> producers thought it would sound more authentic if credit were not given.
> The film was shown on national tv in the seventies and the speech became
> a favorite for quotation among environmentalists.
> A short discussion of the matter can be found in an article by the well-known
> environmentalist J. Baird Callicot "American Indian Land Wisdom? Sorting Out
> the Issues, JOURNAL OF FOREST HISTORY 33 no 1 (January 1989: pp. 35-42)
> Some examples of differences between Perry and Chief Seattle:
> Perry inserts into the speech mid twentieth century pop
> ecology statements entirely lacking in Seattle's speech.Also,
> Seattle said: "Your God loves your people and hates mine... The white
> man's God cannot love his red children.."
> Perry said: "Our God is the same God... He is the God of man, and His
> compassion is equal for the red man and the white. "
> Perry by the way was not aboriginal.
> Cheers, Ken Hanly
>
Response:
Actually there are several versions of the above. The usual assertion
is that the speech by Chief Sealth was a hoax and/or embellished
translation by Henry Smith. The "evidence" for the speech being a
hoax or embellished translation mostly comes down to something like
"how could any savage be so articulate?"; accounts by various
settlers who dealt with Chief Sealth--and who spoke fluent Dwamish,
one of the languages spoken by Chief Sealth--said that he often
expressed such sentiments in language quite similar to the above.
I posted it for various reasons: 1) the sentiments--embellished or
otherwise; 2) as an illustration of quotations that have filtered
into popular sub-cultures often without verification of the pedigree
of the quote (a common problem on the internet).
Jim Craven
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