He was born in 1786, and his real name in the Lushootseed language was See-ahth. Whites found nearly impossible to pronounce. Seattle was also a warrior with a considerable reputation for daring raids on other Indian tribes. After smallpox wiped out many of his people, he realized the inevitablity of the coming tide of white settlement. In 1854 he made a speech to more than a thousand of his people gathered to greet the Government's Indian superintendent, Isaac Stevens.
Most historians agree that the speech was delivered in the Salish dialect.
A year later, the chief signed a treaty with the United States Government, ceding much of the area on which the city of Seattle now stands. According to Smith, Seattle merely praised the generosity of the President in buying his land. Chief Seattle died in 1866, more than a hundred years before the words that would be attributed to him were penned.