ENGLISH LITERATURE

CHIEF SEATTLE’S SPEECH

STD 9 & 10

Ref I.
My words are like the stars that never change. Whatever Seattle says, the Big Chief at
Washington can rely upon with much certainty as he can upon the return of the sun or the
seasons.
1. Who does ‘the Big Chief at Washington’ refer to?
The ‘Big Chief at Washington’ refers to Franklin Pierce, the 14th President of the United
States of America.

2. Based on the given extract, what comparison does Chief Seattle make about his clan and
white settlers?
Chief Seattle says that the white settlers are many. They are like the grass that covers the
vast prairies. On the other hand, he says that his people are few. The Red Children resemble
the scattering trees of a storm-swept plain.

3. What are Seattle’s thoughts when the White Chief says he wishes to buy their land?
Seattle says that the offer indeed appears just, even generous, for the Red Man no longer
has rights, he needs respect, and the offer may be wise, also, as they are no longer in need
of an extensive country.

4. Why does Seattle say ‘the greatness of tribes are now but a mournful memory?’
Seattle says that there was a time when the Red children covered the land as the waves of a
wind-ruffled sea covered its shell paved floor, but that time has passed away. He says that
they will not dwell on, nor mourn over their untimely decay, nor reproach his paleface
brothers hastening it, as the Red Children too are somewhat to be blamed.

5. What do the young men do when they grow angry? What does it denote?
When the young men grew angry at some real or imaginary wrong, they disfigured their
faces with black paint.
It denotes that their hearts are black and that they are often cruel and relentless.

6. Why does Chief Seattle say ‘the hostilities between us may never return?’
According to Seattle, in war, they would have everything to lose and nothing to gain.
Revenge by the young men was considered a gain, even at the cost of their own lives, but
old men who stayed at home in times of war, and mothers who had sons to lose, knew
better.

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Ref II

Our good father in Washington – for I presume he is now our father as well as yours,
since King George has moved his boundaries further north- our great and good father,
I say, sends us word that if we do as he desires he will protect us.
1. How will ‘our good father in Washington’ protect the native Americans if they fulfil his
demand?
Their brave warriors will be to the Red children, a bristling wall of strength, and his
wonderful ships of war will fill their harbours, so that their ancient enemies far to the
northward- the Haidas and Tsimshians- will cease to frighten their women, children and
old men.

2. What makes Seattle say that God loves the white man and hates the Red children?
According to Seattle, the White man’s God folds his strong protecting arms lovingly
about the paleface and leads them by the hand as a father leads an infant son. However,
he has forsaken His Red children, if they really are His. He further says ‘Our God, (the
God of the Red Man) the Great Spirit, seems also to have forsaken us.’ The White man’s
god makes his people wax stronger every day. Soon they would fill all the land. The Red
children are ebbing away like a rapidly increasing tide that will never return.

3. Why do the Red children regard themselves as orphans?

The God of the Red children had given up on them. The White man’s God makes his
people wax stronger every day. The White man’s God cannot love the Red children or
He would protect them. They seem to be orphans who can look nowhere for help. If the
Red children had a common Heavenly Father, He must be partial, for He came to His
paleface children. They never saw him.

4. Why is there a little in common between the Red children and the white children?
There a little in common between the Red children and the white children because both
of them belonged to two distinct races with separate origins and separate destinies.

5. How do both these distinct races feel about their dead ancestors?
The tribal people regard the ashes of their ancestors as sacred and their resting place as a
hallowed ground. The White man wandered far from the graves of his ancestors,
seemingly without regret.

6. Where was the religion of the White man written?

The religion of the White man was written upon the tablets of stone by the iron finger of
the White man’s God so that he would not forget.

7. Comment on the religion of the Red man.

The Red man’s religion is the tradition of their ancestors – the dreams of their old men,
given them in solemn hours of the night by the Great Spirit; and the visions of their
sachems, and is written in the hearts of the people.

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Ref III

Your dead cease to love you and the land of their nativity as soon as they pass the
portals of the tomb and wander away beyond the stars.

1. What makes the dead tribal people continue to love this beautiful world?
The dead tribal people never forget the beautiful world that gave them being. They
still love its verdant valleys, its murmuring rivers, its magnificent mountains,
sequestered vales and verdant lined lakes and bays, and ever yearn in tender fond
affection over the lonely hearted living, and often return from the happy hunting
ground to visit, guide, console and comfort them.

2. What, according to Chief Seattle, would be the state of his tribe if they accept the
proposition made by the Big White Chief?
Chief Seattle’s tribe would dwell apart in peace, for the words of the Great White
Chief seem to be the words of nature speaking to his people out of dense darkness.
He then goes on to say that it would matter little where they would pass the remnant
of their days as they will not be many. The Indian’s night promises to be dark. There
would not be a single star of hope hovering above the horizon. Sad voiced winds
moan in the distance.
Grim fate seems to be on the Red Man’s trail, and wherever he would hear the
approaching footsteps of his fell destroyer and prepare stolidly to meet his doom, as
does the wounded doe that hears the approaching footsteps of the hunter.

3. What is the condition that Seattle puts forward before making a decision on the
white man’s proposition?
He says that they would not be denied the privilege without molestation of visiting at
any time the tombs of their ancestors, friends and children.

4. What aspects in nature are sacred to the tribal people?

Every part of this soil is sacred in the estimation of his people. Every hillside, every
valley, every plain and grove, has been hallowed by some sad and happy event in
days long vanished. Even the rocks, which seem to be dumb and dead as they
swelter in the sun along the silent shore, thrill with memories of stirring events
connected with the lives of many people.

5. Why does the dust upon which the white people stand now responds more lovingly
to the footsteps of the tribal people than to those of the white people?
The dust responds more lovingly to the tribal people than to those of the white
people because it is rich with the blood of their ancestors, and their bare feet are
conscious of the sympathetic touch.

6. When will the shores swarm with the invisible dead of Seattle’s tribe?
According to Chief Seattle, when the last Red Man shall have perished, and the
memory of his tribe shall have become a myth among the White Men, the shores
will swarm with the invisible dead of his tribe.

7. Why does Seattle say ‘The White Man will never be alone?’
Chief Seattle says that when the White Man’s children’s children think themselves
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 alone in the field, the store, the shop, upon the highway or in the silence of the
pathless woods, they will not be alone. In all the earth there is no place dedicated to
solitude. At night when the streets of their cities and villages are silent and they
think them deserted, the Red Man will throng with the returning hosts that once
filled them and still love this beautiful land.

8. What does Chief Seattle say about death?

Chief Seattle says that the dead are not powerless. He says that there is no death,
only a change of worlds.
9. State the theme of the lesson.
• Attachment to land
• Physical and mental oppression
• Clash of civilizations

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