FAQ - Chief Seattle speech

[ironmtn at bigfoot.com]

On Fri, 17 Jul 1998 06:57:31 +0100,
D.E.Cohen at maths.nospam.qmw.please.ac.uk (Daniel Cohen) wrote:

><dumbdrum at fishnet.com> wrote:
>
>As I understood it, Chief Seattle did make a speech, which was recorded
>at the time, and published in a newspaper. But the reporter may well
>(probably did) have changed the words to some extent.
>
>And more recently (20 years sounds OK) it was rewritten for some movie
>or TV program, and changed considerably.
>
>IIRC the original said "Your God is not my God" and the modern version
>has "Your God is my God"!!

This would have been rather odd, as from what I recall Seatlh was a
converted Christian, which was one of the reasons he was chosen to
"represent" the many chiefs of the region at the treaty-signing (i.e.
his legitimacy was used to override objecting chiefs).

The original was in Lushootseed, the secondary version in Chinook
Jargon, and the English was not written down until 33 years later
(albeit by a witness who spoke no Lushootseed and only rough Chinook).

Even the Jargon term for "God", by the way - Saghalie Tyee - is
thought to be a term invented by missionaries as a reference to the
Christian deity, and it would be difficult to refer another deity in
the Jargon.  Natives of the region did have an idea of a supreme or
omnipotent over-deity prior to Christianization, but I doubt the
converted Seatlh would (or could) have made such a comment.

Another translation/variant I have heard of the phrase in question is
"God does not love us as he does your people" (the continuation of
this goes on to say something like "because we have been brought down
and you are many and powerful").   I'm not sure what phrase would be
used to express either of these ideas, even if it were possible to
distinguish "our" Saghalie Tyee from "your" Saghalie Tyee.

What the original Jargon or Lushootseed was can only be guesswork at
this point.  Very interesting guesswork, though.........

Mike Cleven
Iron Mountain Creative Systems
http://members.home.net/ironmtn/

An enemy is as good as a Buddha - Buddhist proverb

The realization that one is a lost soul has two corollaries.  One, that =
one is lost.  Two, that one has a soul.