(c. 1786-1866)
Duwamish, Suquamish, and Lushootseed war leader and diplomat
Seattle, born on Blake Island in Elliot Bay (fronting what would become the city named for him), built upon his ancestral rank among the native nobility to rise to prominence in the aftermath of Euro-American settlement in the Pacific Northwest.
Traditionally, each river draining into Puget Sound was occupied by a tribe sharing a common language, foods, and customs. All of these tribes spoke languages belonging to the Lushootseed (Puget) branch of the Coast Salish family. Interlinking this entire region was a system of three social classes composed of nobility, commoners, and slaves, the latter either war captives or their descendants. Nobility was based on an unblemished genealogy, intertribal kinship, the wise use of resources, and the possession of knowledge about the workings of spirits and the world, whispered only to family members in closely guarded circumstances. The free born also looked different because their mothers carefully shaped their heads as babies by binding them into stiff cradle boards, which produced a steep slope to the forehead.
Whereas everyone worked to hunt game and fish, especially salmon, the leaders of a household, town, or tribe worked as executives, making sure that economic and social activities ran smoothly. When things went well, members of the community provided the leading families with fresh food to compensate for time spent giving help and advice instead of getting provisions. Leaders were expected to have several wives, all of good families, to increase their supply of stored food and hospitality. Of course, leaders also had slaves who did much of the routine work of getting water, firewood, and food.
Seattle was born into this intertribal nobility. His father, Shweabe, was a Suquamish from the west side of Puget Sound, and his mother, Sholitza, was a Duwamish from the White River of the eastern sound. Her family has passed on the name Si'a for generations.
At the end of the eighteenth century, the introduction of guns, together with depopulation from epidemics, destabilized native society in the Northwest, resulting in increased raiding and some territorial expansion by native aggressors. A series of Suquamish war leaders arose in the wake of those events. The first was Kitsap, who led a huge intertribal flotilla that attacked the Cowichans on Vancouver Island. Walak succeeded Kitsap, but he was better known as a speaker. About the time of the 1855 treaties imposed by Governor Isaac Stevens, Seattle replaced Walak, who interpreted for Seattle at the Point Elliot Treaty because Seattle never used Chinook jargon, the international trade jargon of the Northwest both before and after European traders arrived. Denying knowledge of this jargon was a curious step for an intertribal figure to take, though in doing so Seattle called attention to his stature since he then required, and was provided with, a special interpreter to translate from jargon into Lushootseed for him.
As a child Seattle was sent out to quest for spirit power, and he was successful at least once: Thunder, a powerful being, gave him abilities as a warrior and orator.
One of the signs of effective leadership was the ability to direct the labor and resources needed to construct a shed-roofed, cedar-plank longhouse. Usually this construction was undertaken by a set of brothers, who then "owned" the house and led the household. Seattle was associated with one of the longest plank houses in the entire region, known as Oleman House, on Agate Pass at Suquamish; his fame served to attract many followers, who expanded the house, first built about 1800. During Seattle's prime, this house was a thousand feet long.
Seattle had at least two wives. The first, Ladaila of the Duwamishes, was the mother of Angeline (Kikisoblu), a famous figure in her old age and the ancestor of the Deshaw, Thompson, and Fowler families still prominent among the Duwamishes. The second, Owiya, was the mother of at least two boys—George and Jim—and three girls. Jim Seattle was the father of Moses Seattle, a dwarf often seen at public functions. Jim briefly succeeded his father, but was found to lack calm judgment. He eventually became a subchief under Jacob Wahalchu.
When Fort Nisqually was built by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1833, Seattle, known there as Le Gros or See yat, was a frequent visitor and occasional trouble-maker. By this time, Seattle had led many successful raids and gained prestige throughout southern Puget Sound. At the fort, he familiarized himself with European ways while insisting on his prerogatives as the leader of a loose Lushootseed confederacy.
Other allegiances increased his status. In 1838, Catholic priests baptized Seattle, giving him the name Noah because he enjoyed the parallels between the biblical and Suquamish stories of the Flood.
Seattle led a last major attack in about 1847. One of his sons had killed a fellow Suquamish, and, to regain the loyalty of the Suquamishes, Seattle led a force against the Chemakum (non-Salish) village at Hadlock. During the massacre, the murderous son was also killed. Grieving, Seattle decided to give up being a warrior and became a diplomat. His fame, augmented by the support of pioneers, now gave him greater authority. Seeking overall native leaders, Governor Stevens appointed Seattle a head chief for the region when he arrived to organize American rule.
During the war that followed the negotiation of treaties with the Americans, Seattle warned the white settlement that took his name of an impending attack by Leschi, an old friend. To some extent, this friendship among leaders of hostile factions was a balancing act to assure native survival whatever the outcome of the war.
Renowned as an orator among natives even now, Seattle is reported to have given a speech in 1854, since become famous, that has been much debated by scholars. An eloquent defense of Indian lands and traditions, the speech is frequently cited by environmentalists and contemporary native leaders. Because popular English versions of the speech have been distributed so widely, however, many dispute its authenticity. It is significant, then, that it has recently been translated back into Lushootseed and found to convey much the same intent as the English version without its Victorian flourishes.
Among the Lushootseeds the name of a person who had died was not spoken for a year or more after the death, until it had been transferred to a descendant. By taking the name of Seattle, supposedly to honor his support for their settlement in 1853, city fathers unknowingly guaranteed that an important cultural rule would be violated after Seattle's death. Later, in compensation, they feasted and potlatched the chief before his death in 1866.
Today, the memory of Seattle is still honored. Though the Si'a name is held sacred, a diminutive form, Si'si'a, has been bestowed on a male descendant at Lummi. When the Native American galleries were dedicated at the new Seattle Art Museum in 1993, natives sang Seattle's Thunder song in public for the first time in over a century.
Eva Greenslit Anderson, Chief Seattle (Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Printers, 1943); Vi Hilbert, A Time of Gathering: Native Heritage in Washington State "When Chief Seattle (Si'a) Spoke," ed. Robin K. Wright (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1991).
Jay Miller
Lenape
Lushootseed Research
