This is the story of Chief Seattle and his tribe, the Suquamish. They live on Kitsap Peninsula on the shores of Puget Sound across from Seattle, Washington, in an area known as the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Suquamish have lived in this region for thousands of years.
Chief Seattle is renowned for a powerful and eloquent speech he gave in 1854 during treaty negotiations with agents of the United States government. In his speech, Chief Seattle expressed a commitment to living in peace with the settlers and their new culture, and he asked, in turn, that the settlers respect his people and the natural world that they shared. Today his words live on and have inspired many in the human rights and environmental movements around the world.
. . . the very dust under your feet responds more lovingly to our footsteps than to yours, because it is the ashes of our ancestors, and our bare feet are conscious of the sympathetic touch, for the soil is rich with the life of our kindred.
—Chief Seattle
Prior to contact with white settlers, the Suquamish were a powerful tribe in control of a large area of northern Puget Sound. Their chiefs were very influential and had extensive alliances with other tribes throughout the region. As a young man, Chief Seattle distinguished himself as an effective military leader and strategist by stopping raids by aggressive tribes from the north. Because of his military successes and great oratory ability, he became chief of both the Suquamish and the Duwamish tribes.
My ancestors had built seventeen longhouses located through out their area of control.
—Marilyn Jones
Chief Seattle was a young boy when European explorers first sailed into Puget Sound in 1792, nearly 300 years after Columbus “discovered” America. During the next seventy-three years, in the course of one man’s lifetime, the tribes of Puget Sound went from enjoying a culturally rich, autonomous lifestyle to almost total decimation by the non-Native society.
When Vancouver and my ancestors first met, it was peaceful, with mutual respect on both sides.
—Marilyn Jones
Throughout his adult life, Chief Seattle did everything he could to maintain friendly relations with the white settlers while trying to insure that his people did not lose their land and culture. Some have said his efforts were ineffective considering the disruptive changes in lifestyle that were forced upon the Suquamish and other tribes in the region. Many died from Euro-American diseases, tribal culture and religion were suppressed, most traditional tribal lands were appropriated, and the people were confined to restrictive and inadequate reservations. By 1900, a rich and diverse Native culture, thousands of years old, had been brought to the brink of destruction.
However, looked at another way, Chief Seattle’s leadership was successful. His people never went to war with their white neighbors, and the Suquamish as a tribe have survived to this day. Much of their culture is intact; they maintain sovereignty over thousands of acres along Puget Sound, and their leaders are an effective political force for Native rights in the region.
Today, Chief Seattle’s spirit lives on in the hearts and minds of his people, the people of Seattle, and thousands of people around the world. His spirit returns whenever someone reads his speech, a document of grand eloquence and enduring inspiration, the testimony of a people of intelligence and sensitivity who could only hope for the best as their world came crashing down around them.
Chief Seattle is buried on Suquamish Tribal land, land that he loved and helped secure for his people. Across the sound from his gravesite is the city of Seattle named in honor of this great Chief.
