Julian Cope presents Head Heritage | The Modern Antiquarian Forum

Littlestone

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Re: Gyrus?

Jan 13, 2006, 20:37

>You quote Chief Seattle, but, as you say, what language did he give his speech in? For what Wikipedia is worth, it's stated there that:<

The Speech was given in Lushotseed, Seattle's native tongue (his mother was Duwamish while his father was Suquamish).

>"While Smith [the reporter who first published the speech] is known to have been present on the occasion of the speech, he did not speak Chief Seattle's native coastal Salish, and there is some question as to how much of a translation even into Chinook jargon was done at the time."<

Seattle's speech was delivered to Isaac I Stevens, the new Governor and Commissioner of Indian Affairs for Washington Territories, at a meeting in December 1854 and was in reply to President Franklin Pierce's 'offer' to buy a tract of Seattle's land. It is true that his interpreter at that meeting, Dr Henry B Smith, had only lived for some two years in the area that Seattle and his people occupied and his knowledge of Lushotseed may not have been particularly refined. It is also true, however, that the general 'meaning' of the Speech has been accepted by the present-day elders of the Duwamish and Suquamish peoples.*

While the Wikipedia is a convenient online reference source I would refer you to The Encyclopaedia Britannica, Seattle, Chief, 15th Edition, Chicago, 1994, Vol. 10, pp 588 for a more accurate summary of Seattle and the Speech. Alternatively, I can send you an unpublished paper called How Can You Buy The Sky? The Enduring Spirit Of Chief Seattle which I wrote in 1997.

* Gifford, Eli, The many Speeches of Chief Sealthl: The Manipulation of the Record for Religious, Political an Environmental Causes. Occasional papers of Native American Studies, No. 1, Soma State University, California, 1992.

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