Graded in-class writing

Luther Standing Bear's first piece that we read seems to put down the white man. He talks about how the white man views nature and how his people view nature. His tone seems condescending, almost like he is puzzled as to why we view nature as "wilderness". He shows that the Lakota are much more a part of nature, compared to white men who try to conquer nature. Luther Standing Bear believes that his people's ways are the right way to go about living, and thinks that the white man's ways are confusing. Throughout the first piece he is hinting at what the white man does and compares that to what his people do, always suggesting their way is better.

In Chief Seattle's speech, he talks about how the White Chief is forcing them to start living on reservations. He doesn't put up a fight because his people's numbers have diminished so much. Instead he just accepts what the White Chief has planned for them. The White Chief has said that Chief Seattle's people will still live comfortably on the reservation they will be moved to. The main theme of this speech is basically the obedience of the Native Americans. Chief Seattle's people don't put up a fight at all when they find out most of their land is being taken away from them. They just believe that the White Chief wouldn't do anything to trouble them. Chief Seattle does lay down one stipulation; that his people can visit the land where their ancestors have been buried. We do not know if this was honored or not from the speech that we read. This speech just shows that the white man will take advantage of anything to get their way and become the dominant people.

There is controversy in Chief Seattle's speech. Many people believe that it isn't even real because there have been numerous other "Chief Seattle" speeches that have been proven to be fake. One of the major controversies facing this speech is the fact that Dr. Henry A. Smith waited 33 years after hearing the speech to publish the speech. This is a little questionable why someone would wait that long before publishing a speech. Another controversy is the fact that Chief Seattle spoke Salish, while the person who translated it, Dr. Henry A. Smith, didn't. Smith did speak Chinook, so someone must have translated it to Chinook from Salish so Smith could then translate it to English. With this many translations happening, it is completely possible that a good deal of the speech got lost in translation, because some words just don't translate across languages. A final controversy is the amount of different editions of this speech that exist. They have all been changed to fit into the projects they are intended for. So there is no telling if any of these speeches are the real thing. Dr. Smith's notebook hasn't been found, so there is no real evidence on the validity of this speech. (Low 1995:407) 

Works Cited

Low, Denise (09/30/1995). "Contemporary reinvention of Chief Seattle: Variant texts of Chief                      Seattle's 1854 speech". American Indian quarterly (0095-182X), 19 (3), p. 407.