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

top dog Seattle, leader of the Duwamish race, was motive of the famous talk to Washington Governor Stevens upon his arrival to Seattle in 1854. However, compositiony doubt principal Seattles language to substantiate taken place. in that location is little credible evidence usable to back up the existence of the nomenclature with the exception of a newspaper member written by a pertain henry A. metalworker. The article, titled oral sex Seattles Speech, was published in the Seattle Sunday thaumaturgist on October 27th, 1887. If rejuvenate smith was knockout to chief Seattles epic destination, he was the sole translator. How are we to know that interpreting faults and liberations were not made by secure Smith? The Duwamish language was not a written language, having no alphabet, thus no bump functionary record or piece could wee-wee been made. For these reasons, it is highly probable political boss Seattles oration of 1854 neer existed.The get-go and only published count of political boss Seattles Oration was written in the Seattle Sunday Star on October 27th, 1887. The author of the article, Doctor Henry Smith, was verbalise to have been a witness at the vocabulary 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, exclusively every citation leads back to Doctor Smiths article. in that locationfore, the only proof available that this speech ever occurred is the newspaper article go out back to 1887 from this nonpareil source.If we are to crack up the benefit of the doubt to Doctor Henry Smith as having been witness a to this speech, who is to say the translation was correct? For either we know Doctor Henry A. Smith made up every war cry of the speech, nobody would know. Chief Seattle was know 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 off a piece 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 to read from or give ear at while 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 paint a picture this. An account of the speech by the Duwamish tribe, or a reduplicate 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 Seattl es 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 taken place, and there is no reason for anyone to believe that Doctor Smith took an exact translation with no liberations added. For these reasons, Chief Seattles Oration of 1854 never existed.