Chief Seattle
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- "Chief Sealth" redirects here. You may be looking for Chief Sealth High School.
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 became a convert to Roman Catholicism and pursued a path of accommodation to white settlers, and formed a personal relationship with David Swinson "Doc" Maynard. It was at Maynard's suggestion that Seattle, Washington was named after the Chief.
[edit] Life
Chief Seattle was born around 1786 on Blake Island, Washington, and died June 7, 1866, on the Suquamish reservation at Port Madison, Washington (north of Bainbridge Island and east of Poulsbo). His father, Schweabe, was a leader of the Suquamish tribe, and his mother was Scholitza of the Duwamish.
Seattle 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. He was very tall for a Puget Sound native at nearly six feet. He was also known as an orator, and his voice is said to have carried half a mile or more when he addressed an audience.
He married well, taking wives from the village of Tola'ltu just southeast of Duwamish Head on Elliott Bay (now part of West Seattle). His first wife died after bearing a daughter. A second wife bore him sons and daughters. The most famous of his children was Princess Angeline. After the death of one of his sons, he sought and received baptism in the Roman Catholic Church, probably in 1848 near Olympia, Washington. His children were also baptized and raised in the faith, and his conversion marked his emergence as a leader seeking cooperation with incoming American settlers.[1]
The truth regarding the alleged 1854 speech: http://www.snopes.com/quotes/seattle.htm
[edit] 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.
- Chief Seattle's Speech, HistoryLink.org, introduction by Walt Crowley, June 28, 1999, revised by Greg Lange and Priscilla Long, January 12, 2001, accessed July 21, 2005.
