Lether Standing Bear
Luther standing bear is addressing in his writing how the the cultures of the American Indian and the Europeans are different. He says that if he had a son or was in charge of a "younger mind" because he believes that their way makes much more sense. The way of the American Indian actually involves putting thought behind what they say and do and wastes very little time with the pleasantries that the Europeans were so well known for. He states that the American Indian will survive only as long as their ideals and way of life continues on and that when they no longer follow the ways and traditions of their ancestors then the American Indian will truly be dead.
This shows how truly in touch the Indians are with the land that they live in and shows a marked contrast with how we live. Most Americans living in our society right now are not very in touch with the environment. In fact, the building we create are meant to defy nature and allow us to live in areas that we would otherwise be unable to live in.
Chief Seattle Famous speech
at the beginning of this article before the actual speech there is a brief description on Chief Seattle.The description leads the reader to believe that He is a very imposing man and had a way of commanding peoples attention when he spoke.The speech that Chief Seattle gives is in response to the new governor who is trying to convince them to sell their land and move to a reservation. He is talking about how it seems that the Indians god has seemingly abandoned them, and that the white man's god couldn't love the Indians as much as he loved the white man because he seemed to give preferential treatment to the Europeans. He states how it is hard to think of the Indians and the Europeans being able to get along due to the big difference in lifestyles. But he goes on to say that he believes the Indians will agree to sell their land and move to the reservations because they no longer need as much land as they once did. Chief Seattle also states that even though the Indians are declining, long past the point that they are gone, there spirit will live on in the lands that they once lived on.
It does seem like some of the points that Chief Seattle makes would be good ones and that he is saying that according to their beliefs the Spirit of the American Indian will live on long after they are gone, and their lands that they cherished in life will be sacred to them long after they are dead. There is controversy over whether or not this was a speech actually given by Chief Seattle because if so it would have had to have been translated from Salish into Chinook and Smith had to have kept notes on it for 30 years without mentioning it. It is also believed that Smith might have been the one to have come up with it himself since it resembles some of the poetry that he wrote himself.
