CHIEF SEATTLE

CHIEF SEATTLE (c. 1786 – June 7, 1866)

He was a Suquamish and Duwamish chief. A leading figure among his people, he pursued a path of accommodation to white settlers, forming a personal relationship with David Swinson Maynard. The city of Seattle, in the state of Washington, was named after him. A widely publicized speech arguing in favor of ecological responsibility and respect of Native Americans' land rights had been attributed to him. The name Seattle is an Anglicization of the modern Duwamish conventional spelling Si'ahl. He is also known as Sealth, Seattle, Seathl, or See-ahth.

Seattle's mother Sholeetsa was Dkhw'Duw'Absh (Duwamish) and his father Shweabe was chief of the Dkhw'Suqw'Absh (the Suquamish tribe). Seattle was born some time between 1780 and 1786, the Duwamish tradition is that he was born at his mother's village on the Black River, in what is now the city of Kent, Washington, and that he grew up speaking both the Duwamish and Suquamish dialects of Lushootseed. Seattle inherited his position as chief of the Duwamish Tribe from his maternal uncle. Seattle earned his reputation at a young age as a leader and a warrior, ambushing and defeating groups of tribal enemy raiders. Like many of his contemporaries, he owned slaves captured during his raids. He was tall and broad, standing nearly six feet (1.8 m) tall; Hudson's Bay Company traders gave him the nickname Le Gros (The Big Guy). He was also known as an orator and when he addressed an audience, his voice is said to have carried from his camp to a distance of three quarters of a mile (1.2 km). Chief Seattle took wives from the village of Tola'ltu just southeast of Duwamish Head on Elliott Bay (now part of West Seattle). His first wife La-Dalia died after bearing a daughter. He had three sons and four daughters with his second wife, Olahl. The most famous of his children was his first, Kikisoblu or Princess Angeline. Seattle was converted to Christianity by French missionaries and was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church with the baptismal name Noah, probably in 1848 near Olympia, Washington. For all his skill, Seattle was gradually losing ground to the more powerful Patkanim of the Snohomish when white settlers started showing up in force around 1850. When his people were driven from their traditional clamming grounds, Seattle met 'Doc' Maynard in Olympia, they formed a friendly relationship. Persuading the settlers at the white settlement of Duwamps to rename their town Seattle, Maynard established their support for Chief Seattle's people and negotiated relatively peaceful relations with the tribes. Seattle kept his people out of the Battle of Seattle in 1856. Afterwards, he was unwilling to lead his tribe to the reservation established, since mixing Duwamish and Snohomish was likely to lead to bloodshed. Maynard persuaded the government of the necessity of allowing Seattle to remove to his father's longhouse on Agate Passage. Seattle frequented the town named after him, and had his photograph taken by E. M. Sammis in 1865. He died June 7, 1866, on the Suquamish reservation at Port Madison, Washington .The speech or "letter" attributed to Chief Seattle has been widely cited as a "powerful, bittersweet plea for respect of Native American rights and environmental values". But this document, which has achieved widespread fame thanks to its promotion in the environmental movement, is of doubtful authenticity.

Seattle's grave site is at the Suquamish Tribal Cemetery.