Reading: Chief Seattle

It’s hard to say I liked the speech by Chief Seattle. I felt it was well spoken, and had many important points. The contents, however, were so grievous I would hate to say I enjoyed reading it. In the same way that I wouldn’t say I enjoy reading a well written obituary, and that is essentially what this man is describing; the death of his people.

Given his perspective I feel that he made the right choice. To look at how Indians were being treated at the time he must have realized that to fight would mean total annihilation, and to give in would me the slow disintegration of his culture. When faced with the decision between a violent and bloody end, or a slow and steady one, it is hard to say which is the dignified way to choose. In the end dead is dead.

Chief Seattle did make clear that he did not want to fight by describing the young men going to war. He sees them wearing ugly black face paint, and knows that the cost of war isn’t just physical but spiritual as well by telling of these men’s blackened hearts. He goes on to justify why they would do these things, which seems to me like more of a plea. Seattle is showing Governor Stevens that these young men fight for revenge, but admits that there is “everything to loose and nothing to gain.”

The ideas here are very melancholy. I feel that the words are powerful, but the position Seattle is speaking them from is very weak. He is essentially backed into a corner and this is him coming to terms, and maybe trying to convince his own people to come to terms with the reality of the situation. Finally the part I found the most telling was when the Chief makes the demand to visit his people burial places. I noticed this passage not because of what was said, but because I knew that even if Stevens gave this concession it was likely short lived.

- Shay out