Chief Seattle

Chief Seattle (also Sealth or Seathl) of the Suquamish and Duwamish Native American tribes, was born around 1786 on Blake Island in Washington state, and died June 7, 1866 on the Suquamish Reservation at Port Madison (now Bainbridge Island, Washington). His father, Schweabe, was a noble of the Suquamish tribe, and his mother was Scholitza of the Duwamish. Seattle, Washington was named after him.

Related Topics:
Suquamish - Duwamish - Native American - 1786 - Blake Island - Washington state - June 7 - 1866 - Bainbridge Island, Washington - Seattle, Washington

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Seattle earned his reputation at a young age as a leader and a warrior, ambushing and defeating groups of enemy raiders coming up the Green River from the Cascade foothills, and attacking the S'Klallam, a powerful tribe living on the north shore of the Olympic Peninsula. He also married well, taking wives from the village of Tola'ltu just southeast of Duwamish Head on Elliott Bay (now part of West Seattle). His first wife died after bearing a daughter. A second wife bore him sons and daughters. After the death of one of his sons, he sought and received baptism in the Roman Catholic Church, probably in 1848 near Olympia, Washington. His children were also baptized and raised in the faith, and his conversion marked his emergence as a leader seeking cooperation with incoming American settlers.http://content.lib.washington.edu/aipnw/buerge2.html

Related Topics:
Green River - Cascade - S'Klallam - Olympic Peninsula - Duwamish Head - Elliott Bay - West Seattle - Baptism - Roman Catholic Church - 1848 - Olympia, Washington

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The only known photograph of Chief Seattle was taken in the 1860s as he neared his 80th year.

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In an American Indian Quarterly paper assessing Seattle's legacy, Klallam leader Phillip Howell is said to have thought of him as "a low type of Indian, a joke among the Natives and worse, a coward and a traitor" for going along with the treaty negotiations and yielding Indian lands to the white men. A different view is cited by Peg Deam, a cultural development specialist at the Suquamish Tribal Council. She is quoted as saying Chief Seattle "was put in a position where he had to make some very difficult--and ultimately harmful--choices. Many hearts were broken because their lifestyle was completely changed. The settlers made the Natives move to these little pieces of land, separated from each other. But as a leader and what he could foresee at that time, I think he made the right choice." http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/getaways/57273_heritage07.shtml

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Murray Morgan remarks in Skid Road that a Puget Sound-area chief was merely "a rich man with some eloquence, a man whose opinions carried more weight than those of his fellow tribesmen," rather than a hereditary leader. He also points out that Chief Seattle was exceptional in that he first made his mark as a warrior, but served primarily as a peacetime tyee.

Related Topics:
Murray Morgan - Puget Sound

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Chief Seattle's grave marker reads "Seattle, Chief of the Suquamps and Allied Tribes, Died June 7, 1866. Firm Friend of the Whites, and For Him the City of Seattle was Named by Its Founders," and, on the reverse, "Baptismal Name: Noah Sealth, Age probably 80 years."

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(The sacramental register of those who likely baptised Seattle, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate at the St. Joseph of Newmarket Mission near Olympia, gives his name as Noe Siattle.)

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