Two other short speeches by Chief Seattle are in the National Archives. One was a fragment of a speech recorded in 1850 and the other, from May of 1858, was a lament by Seattle that the Port Elliott treaty had failed to win ratification in the US Senate, leaving the tribes in poverty and poor health. Those four short speeches are all we really know of the words of Chief Seattle. The myth of Chief Seattle's famous oration began on October 29, 1887. Yonder sky, that has wept tears of compassion upon our fathers for centuries untold, and which today appears changeless and eternal, may change.
Today is fair.
Tomorrow it may be overcast with clouds. My words are like the stars that never change. To us the ashes of our ancestors are sacred and their resting place is hallowed ground. You wander far from the graves of your ancestors and seemingly without regret. Your religion was written upon tablets of stone by the iron finger of your God so that you could not forget.