"Authorship" of Chief Seattle's Speech

Peer-Reviewed Article

Based on the article, "Chief Seattle's Speech Revisited," there are several reasons why Chief Seattle could not have given the speech as later 'recorded' by Henry Smith. The first reason is that there was no record indicating that Henry Smith was ever present at the speech that Chief Seattle made. The second is that Smith describes Chief Seattle's physical description in 2 totally different ways, so there could be no way from him to have seen Seattle when he made the first speech. If both of these are true, then there could have been no possible way for Smith to have taken accurate "notes" at Seattle's speech, which indicates the very real possibility that Smith made the speech up. Even though this speech is very moving and descriptive, there is no way the Seattle could have said this speech in the way the Smith outlines it in his writings.