Masters Thesis

The Many Speeches of Seathl: The Manipulation of the Record on Behalf of Religious, Political and Environmental Causes

Purpose of this study: The purpose of this study is to document the origins of the various speeches attributed to Chief Seathl and to identify the reasons the speech was manipulated by various authors. Procedure: To document the evolution and the manipulation of Seathl's speech a number of sources were used. These sources included newspapers, oral histories, autobiographies, biographies, personal interviews and letters from the people involved in the manipulation of Seathl's words. A comparative analysis was also done for each speech. By using different fonts, styles and letter size the analysis clearly shows the editing done by each author. Findings: Chief Seathl did give a speech to Governor Stevens, but none of the speeches attributed to Seathl are his words. Dr. Henry A. Smith wrote the original version of the speech from notes he claimed to have taken while Seathl spoke. The authenticity of the sentiment expressed in the original version is also debatable. The environmental version attributed to Chief Seath l was written in 1970. Conclusion: Chair: Chief Seathl did give a speech on January 12, 1854. At the present time there is no text that can be identified positively as including the words of Seathl. The environmental version of the speech was written in 1970 by Ted Perry, who at the time was a professor of Theatre Arts at the University of Texas. Originally, Perry wrote it as a film script for the Baptist Radio and Television Commission. It was subsequently edited by John Stevens, a producer working for the Baptist Radio and Television Commission.

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