CHIEF SEATTLE’S SPEECH
There was a time when our people covered the land as the waves of a wind-ruffled sea cover its shell-paved floor………..
i) Who is the speaker? Why is he making this speech?
ii) Give evidence from the story to show that the speaker is a logical thinker.
iii) Why does he say later that the Red Indians and the Paleface cannot be brothers?
iv) What differences does he point out between the two races?
v) What does he say about the “common destiny”?
Answers
Answer:
(I) The Speaker is Chief Seattle.
The chief in the extract is remembering the time when red Indians had the hold over the vast land. But over the years their power and hold on the land had reduced remarkably. Native Americans themselves and their leaders are primarily responsible for this reduced hold on their vast lands.
iii) Seattle states that the Red Indians and the paleface cannot be brothers as their Gods and religions are different. Moreover, if the white man's God really was the God of the Red man, he has completely ignored his red children. He has only made the pale face stronger. The Red Indians worship the Great Spirit in the Sky. Thus Seattle says that they are two different races of people with separate origins and destinies.
(iv) Seattle points out that the Red Indians and the paleface 's Gods and religions are different that is they have separate origins and destinies. He also points that the white man shows no respect to the remains of dead. They leave the graves of their ancestors and travel thousands of miles away. The Red Indians consider the graves of their ancestors as holy ground. They also believed that the death return to visit them, to guide them, to comfort them. They do not have written laws like the white man.