Chief Seattle’s 1854 Oration †Was it true? Essay

of import Seattle, leader of the Duwamish tribe, was author of the famous lecturing to Washington Governor Stevens upon his arrival to Seattle in 1854. However, earthy dubiousness Chief Seattles saving to urinate taken place. in that respect is little credible evidence available to back up the existence of the dialect with the exception of a newspaper article written by a Doctor Henry A. smith. The article, cor wizted Chief Seattles Speech, was published in the Seattle Sunday Star on October 27th, 1887. If Doctor Smith was obtain to Chief Seattles epic nomenclature, he was the sole translator. How are we to know that translation faults and liberations were not do by Doctor Smith? The Duwamish language was not a written language, having no alphabet, thus no official record or writing could have been made. For these reasons, it is highly probable Chief Seattles speech of 1854 never existed.The first and further published eyeshade of Chief Seattles talk was written in th e Seattle Sunday Star on October 27th, 1887. The author of the article, Doctor Henry Smith, was said to have been a regard at the speech and served as a translator for Chief Seattle however, no official document of this account exists in any historical archive. Chief Seattles speech has been widely cited in numerous books and documents, scarce every citation leads back to Doctor Smiths article. Therefore, the only proof available that this speech ever occurred is the newspaper article dating back to 1887 from this one source.If we are to give the benefit of the doubt to Doctor Henry Smith as having been witness a to this speech, who is to say the translation wascorrect? For only we know Doctor Henry A. Smith made up every word of the speech, nobody would know. Chief Seattle was known to have been illiterate, neither knowing how to read, write or speak English (McCarthy par. 12). His speech was presented in nice paragraph form, almost as if Chief Seattle was reading the address of f a slash of paper, even though Chief Seattle could not read.The Duwamish language had no alphabet, it could not be written, it was only spoken. There is no possible way Chief Seattle could have had anything toread from or look at date giving his speech to Governor Stevens. Due to these facts, no official record of the speech could exist. Yes, Doctor Smith could have written a near-perfect translation, but there is no evidence to suggest this. An account of the speech by the Duwamish tribe, or a feign of the speech in Duwamish, does not exist for anyone to refer to.The man known as Chief Seattle existed, the Duwamish tribe existed, Doctor Smith existed, these are known FACTS. However, there is only but one written account by a Doctor Henry Smith that this Oration took place, and only one translator was said to have been at Chief Seattles Oration and that one man was a Doctor Henry A. Smith. The Duwamish tribe had no written language for an official copy of this speech to have tak en place, and there is no reason for anyone to believe that Doctor Smith took an hire translation with no liberations added. For these reasons, Chief Seattles Oration of 1854 never existed.