`. Did You Know ?
fact
number 081
Chief
Seattle
Part
One
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Chief
Seattle was born on an Island in the Puget
Sound,
about 1788, of the Duwamish tribe
(Duamish,
Dwahmish, Dwamish), who lived in the
Puget
Sound area of the state of Washington.
He
was part Duwamish and part Suquamish.
His
true name is Chief Seath'tl.
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At
the age of Twenty-two, Seath'tl became
chief
of the Duwamish-Suquamish alliance
that
ringed central Puget Sound.
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Missionaries
converted him to Catholicism
in
the 1830s; He, taking the name Noah.
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The
early 1850s, found white settlers inundating
the
Puget Sound area. Indian tribes of the Puget
Sound
region gave up much of their land to the
United
States government in the 1850s, in return
for
promises of cash payment. It was not long before
the
Native Americans of the area realized that the
whites
not only encroached upon their fishing areas,
they
even blocked access to Indian fishing grounds.
Founded
in 1851, the white man's settlement
was
briefly called Duwamps, after the tribe of
Indians
that lived there. In the summer of 1852,
because
he was so admired by the people of the
settlement,
the name was changed to Seattle, in
honor
of the Indian leader who had befriended
the
settlers in their time of need. They ignored
his
protests that his spirit would be disturbed if
his
name was spoken after his death.
In
1854, after signing the Treaty of Point Elliot,
Chief
Seath'tl peacefully; yet sadly, led the Duwamish
peoples
away from their native lands. Prior to their
departure,
Chief Seath'tl delivered one of
history's
greatest Native American speeches.*
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He
remained friends to the white people during
the
Indian uprising, when The Yakima War of
1855-1856,
spilled over the Northern Cascades
Mountains
and down into the Seattle area. The
war
ended with the hanging of Chief Leschi, the
leader
of the Native people opposing the treaties.
Seath'tl
and his people looked on from their
retreat
on the western shores of the Puget
Sound,
as the unrest continued, to 1858.
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The
Port Madison Reservation, of the Suquamish
Indian
Tribe in Washington State, holds an annual
"Chief
Seattle Day" celebration.
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Next Fact, Chief
Seattle, Part Two...Share
with
me the haunting farewell speech of
"Chief
Seath'tl's 1854, Treaty Oration."
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Did You Know Copyright
1999-2003 by John Henry Roache
Did You Know Facts Copyright 1999-2003 by John Henry Roache
All Rights Reserved