Did Chief Seattle really want to accept the White Chief’s offer?

QuestionsDid Chief Seattle really want to accept the White Chief’s offer?
Soumik Ghosh asked 7 years ago

In Chief Seattle’s Speech, did the speaker actually want to accept the offer sent by the White Chief to buy their native lands?

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1 Answers
Staff answered 7 years ago

Most probably not. If he wanted to accept White Chief’s offer of buying the native land, he wouldn’t have told so many things about the cultural difference between the two races, namely the White men and the Red Indians and the enmity between them. Throughout his speech, Seattle has blamed the White people of forcing their way into the native lands and not respecting the land rights, cultural tradition and religious faiths of the native people. Moreover, Seattle ends his speech with a strong warning to the White Chief: “Let him be just, and deal kindly with my people, for the dead are not powerless.” Though in the middle of his speech he struck a note of reconciliation, he expressed his disapproval of the offer in very clinical terms.

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