Critical Appreciation of the Story Chief Seattle’s Speech
Introduction
This famous 19th century speech which has been attributed to Chief Seattle, has been extracted from Chief Seattle’s Treaty Orientation 1854 version 1. It was published in the Seattle Sunday Star, October 29, 1887, by Dr. Henry A.Smith. Smith is said to have taken notes as Chief Seattle spoke in the Suqumaish dialect and then transcribed the text in English from his notes. The speech given by Chief Seattle in January of 1854 is the subject of a great of historical debate.
Perhaps the work of Pacific Northwest literature best known around the world is chief Seattle’a speech in which he discusses relations between natives and non-natives and conveys Indian ideas about life, the after life and natural resources. In his speech, he argues with gentle irony in favour of ecological responsibility and respect of native Americans’ beliefs, traditions and land rights. Although what he actually said may have been lost through translation and rewriting the ‘speech’ or ‘letter’ attributed to Chief Seattle has been widely cited as a powerful, bitterwest plea for respect of native American rights and environmental values.
Plot of the Speech
Through his speech, Chief Seattle has given a clear picture of how his tribal people have been oppressed by the white Americans throughout the centuries. We hear him say : “Yonder sky that has wept tears of compassion upon my people for centuries untold, and which to us appears changeless and eternal, may change.’ Though there was a time when the tribal people had filled the entire land, his race has seen an untimely decay giving him ‘a mournful memory’ of the greatness of the tribes.
For the doom of the Red Indians, Seattle mainly accuses the white people’s act of farcing their way into the native lands. The white people think themselves superior and supreme and do not respect the tribal people. The tribals don’t even get their land and human rights secured. Seattle complains, the God gave the White men laws, but He had no words for His Red Children. The White people don’t even allow them to freely practise and perform their religious and cultural actions. They make laws as they like and the Red people’s rights are snatched away. They are tortured. These only hint at how the white dominate the tribal men.
Again, there has been outsider attacks on their tribes and the White people who administer everything in the country don’t always give them protection. Seattle says that the white Chief has sent him an offer that if he agrees in their decision to buy the native lands, they will protect their women, children and old men from their ancient enemies far to the northward-the Haides and Tsimshians.
The native people are reduced to a community who now live upon the sympathy of the White people. Even God has not been kind enough to protect their race from the white people and from the enemies. In some cases, as Seattle reckons, their own fault-the aggression of the youth and the thirst for revenge even at the cost of their own lives-are to be blamed. They are thus brought to the doorway of a premature doom.
Seattle concludes, it’s only their destiny and this is common destiny that the white men will also face sooner or later.
Moral of Speech
There is a vital role of Chief Seattle’s speech in our today’s life so as to make us learn how we need to view the lives as part of nature, how we need to respect nature, how we need to rethink about our goals so as to make them harmonious with nature. His speech shows that plants, animals and inanimate objects have life like that of man. Seattle in his speech can not comprehend the idea of selling and buying land, as it is a natural resource. He says that he is not talking of land as a piece of geographical area but as the ground rich with blood of his ancestors. Moreover, the world with its valleys, its river, its magnificent mountains is alive and precious. These are the resources bestowed to the man and hence it is important to care for them, and thus support sustainable development. It is man’s duty to preserve nature, to love and respect nature as his sacred mother and all creatures living in earth as his brothers.
Setting of the Speech
There is controversy about the speech delivered by Seattle concerning the concession of native lands to the settlers. Even the date and location of the speech has been disputed, but the most common version is that on March 11, 1854, Seattle gave a speech at a large outdoor gathering in Seattle. The meeting had been called by Governor Isaac Stevens to discuss the surrender or sale of native land to white settlers. Maynard introduced Stevens who then briefly explained his mission, which was already well understood by all present. Seattle then rose to speak. He rested his land upon the head of the much smaller Stevens and declaimed with great dignity for an extend period. No one alive today knows what he said; he spoke in the Lushootseed language and someone translated his words into Chinook Indian trade language and a third person translated that into English. Some years later, Henry A. Smith wrote down an English version of the speech, based on Smith’s notes. It was a flowery text in which Seattle purportedly thanked the white people for their generosity, demanded that any treaty guarantee access to native burial grounds and made a contrast between the God of the White people and that of his own.
Appropriateness of the Title
The title of the text is appropriate because the speech which was delivered by Chief Seattle, deals with his views about the white people. In his speech, Chief Seattle thanks the white Chief for acknowledging the greetings of friendship and goodwill. He speaks in favour of ecological responsibility and respect of native Americans’ land rights. He wants the white people to be just and kind to his tribal. At the end of speech, he says the ground is sacred and the white man needs to know he is not alone for there is no death only a change of worlds.
Ethos, Pathos and Logos :
Ethos : Chief Seattle is talking to his tribe showing the authority he has over his tribe.
Pathos : Chief Seattle uses sorrow and empowerment to manipulate the audience’ emotional reaction.
Logos: Chief Seattle uses logic in the set up of his speech. In the beginning, he forewarns his people that their lives will have to change.
The Use of Imagery:
It seems to be very vivid where it talks about the Red men’s trail. It explains that it promises to dark and not a single star of hope will hover above the natives’ horizon, which we believe, it means that they will lose hope. The mood is dark, gloomy and sad. It does not show much hope.
Sarcastic Tone and Irony:
It is the natives’ land that the Big Chief in Washington ‘wishes’ to buy, but ‘wish’ is a word sarcastically used by Chief Seattle. The Whites are so powerful in terms of their army and navy that the Red Indians need to bow down. Chief Seattle says that the Whites are willing to allow them enough land to live comfortably which is symolic of their master-slave relationship. It is ironical that their ‘good and great father’ in Washington will save them only when they will do as he desires. Chief Seattle exclaims that ‘the Indian’s night promises to i be dark’ and ‘grim fate seems to be on the Red Man’s trial’. Moreover, they are compared to a ‘wounded doe that hears the approaching footsteps of the hunter’.
The Purpose and Tone
The purpose of this passage was to tell the native Americans that the white men were talking over their territory. The tone is persuasive.
The Use of Repetition
It is a repetition of a word or of words at the beginning of two or more successive clauses :
‘Every hillside, every valley, every plain and grove has been hallowed by
some sad or happy event in days long vanished.’
The Use of Rhetorical Question
Rhetorical question is a statement that is formulated as a question but that
is not supposed to be answered :
‘But why should 1 mourn the untimely fate of my people ?’
The Use of Figures of Speech:
Metaphor has been used in the speech to adorn the dignity of the sentences in the speech. There are few examples of metaphor :
- “Your religion was written upon tablets of stone by the iron finger of your > god so that you could not forget.
- ‘They resemble the scattering trees of a storm-swept plain.’
- ‘The Indian’s night promise to be dark.’
The writer or the speaker has used simile to enhance the beauty of the sentences :
- ‘The red man has everfled the approach of the white man, as the morning mist flees before the morning sun.’
- ‘My words are like the stars that never change.’
- ‘They are like the grass that covers vast prairies.’
Figure of speech hyperbole has been used in the following :
‘His people are like many. They are like the grass that covers vast prairies and my people are few. They resemble the scattering trees of a storm-swept plain. ’
Figure of speech personification has been used in the following :
Yonder sky that has wept tears of compassion upon my people for countries untold ’
The Use of Aporia
Aporia is a figure of speech in which speaker professes to be at a loss what to say, etc. There is an example of aporia :
‘Then in reality will he be our father and we his children. But can that ever be.’
The Use of Parallelism:
Parallelism is similarity of construction or meaning of clauses placed side by side, especially clauses expressing the same sentiment with slight modifications, as is common in Hebrew poetry.
‘When your children’s children think themselves alone in the field, the store, the shop, upon the highway or in the silence of the pathless wood, they will be alone.’
Diction and Syntax
From the choice of words, it can be known that the old fashioned words have been used in the speech, such as in the colonial period. The sentences seem to be declarative sentences. They are in a colonial time period of structure. The mood to a reader is a serious mood that someone smart is saying it and that we should listen. He is talking in an intellectual voice meaning he is taking this very seriously and with much care.
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