Name
Date
Class
MIIIIFETT DE$TINY
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ilative Americans look at life Differently
As great numbers of American settlers moaed to the Northutest, the
Natiae Americans who had liaed there for centuries lost their freedom to
roam the lsnd. ln this speech, Seattle, a chief ofthe Puget Sound peoples,
accepts the gooernment's offer to mooe onto fl reserafrtion.
As you read, think about:
1-. How is the religion of white settlers different from that of the Native
Americans?
2. What does Seattle request before accepting the offer to move onto a
reservation?
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lf
I
o us the ashes of our ancestors are sacred, and
their resting place is hallowed [holy] ground.
You wander far from the graves of your ancestors
and seemingly without regret. Your religion was
written on tables of stone by the iron finger of your
God so that you could not forget. The Red Man
could never comprehend [understand] nor remem-
sad or huppy event in days long vanished. Even the
rocks, which seem to be dumb and dead,. .. thrill
with memories of stirring events connected with the
lives of my people. . . . Our departed braves, fond
mothers, glad, happy-hearted maidens, and even the
little children who lived here and reioiced here for a
brief season, still love these somber solitudes, and at
Man has ever fled the approach of the White Man as
the morning mist flees before the rising sun.
However, your proposition [plan] seems fair. I
think that my folks will accept it and will retire to
the reservation you offer them. Then we will dwell
apart in peace. . . .
But should we accept it, I here and now make this
eventide [eveningl they grow shadowy of retuming
spirits. And when the iast Red Man shall have perished [died] and the memory of my tribe shall have
become a myth among the white man, these shores
will swarm with the invisible dead of my tribe.
And when your children's children think themselves 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 [to
be alone]. At night when the streets of your cities and
villages are silent and you think them deserted, they
will throng [be crowded] with the retuming [sou]sl
that once filled them and still love this beautiful land.
ber it. Our religion is the traditions of our ancestors. . . and is written in the hearts of our people.
Day and night carurot dwell together. The Red
condition-that we will not be denied the privi-
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lege . . . of visiting at any time the tombs of our ancestors, friends, and children. Every part of this soil is
sacred [to] my people. Every hitlside, every valley,
every plain and groove, has been hallowed by some
The \l/hite Man
will never be alone. . . .
i
G
O
Sottrce: Washittgton Historical Quarterly, October 1931. Reprinted by permission of the Pacific Northwest
euarterly. University of
Washington, Seattle.
!
Answer the following questions on a separate sheet of paper.
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2.
Analyzing the Reading
How do Native Americans view their natural surroundings?
According to Seattle, why will the white man never be alone?
3.
Making Infelences What does Seattle mean when he says, "Day and night cannot dwell toeether,,?
-1,.
a
History of a Free Nation
Readings
The European Conquest of America
20
SOURCES
The Indians as Seen bv
European Artists
Europeans fornted a t'antastic aariety of nrcntal pictures of the liaes and behttaior oi the natiues of the Americas. O, one hand, they might portray the Indi-
ans'as aicious carutibals, with alntost rto social organizatiott. On the other
hand, Europeans often pictured Indian society as being ratlrcr orderly, ad'
aanced, and "ciuilized." Here are three aery famous sixteenth-century representations. Pictures, ute like to belieue, tell us nrcre tlun words. sttppose you
uter-e to try to translate these pictures into a t'ew words, howeaer. Wmt would
they lte? cott you inngine otl.rer zunys ot' depicting the Indians thnt Eutopeans
might luae used?
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john White's Engraving of Indians Making
a Canoe near Roanoke, 1588'
Rare Book Dioision, New York Public Librartl.
A Settlement of Virginia
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