Native Seattle: Histories from the Crossing-Over Place

7: The Changers, Changed

7 / The Changers, Changed I n 1866, seeathl, seattle’s namesake, died at Place of Clear Water, the community from which Jacob Wahalchoo had once gone out in search of power below the waters of Puget Sound. He was buried on the Port Madison Reservation across Puget Sound from Seattle, not far from the enormous main longhouse at Place of Clear Water that settlers called Oleman House or Old Man House, meaning “worn-out house” or “venerable house” in Chinook Jargon. The death of Chief Seattle garnered little official attention in the city that bore his name; no Puget Sound newspapers announced his passing, and while settlers who knew him surely noted his death—perhaps some even mourned—Seeathl seemed to fade quickly from prominence in Seattle ’s civic consciousness. A few years later, government agents burned Oleman House, seeing it as a hindrance to their civilizing mission. Meanwhile , the descendants of Seeathl and their fellow Suquamish tribal members tended his grave; occasionally a white visitor from off the reservation would place American flags there in memory of the indigenous leader’s contributions to the birth of Seattle. But more often, the madrone-ringed cliff-top cemetery, facing Seattle across Puget Sound, remained a quiet place.1 In 1911, the scene at Seeathl’s grave could not have been more different . Hundreds of visitors from Seattle were on hand, enjoying the late August weather and the U.S.S. Pennsylvania’s brass band following a welcome from the local Indian agent. Seattle mayor George W. Dilling, jurist Thomas Burke, and University of Washington history professor Edmond S. Meany each gave an address describing Seeathl’s hospitality toward the first settlers, and patriotic songs were sung in English and Chinook Jargon. As souvenirs, each guest was given a pho1 2 6 tograph of the grave courtesy of printer (and future mayor) Ole Hanson . This was Chief Seattle Day. “The sentiment of a Chief Seattle Day, in commemoration of the Indian chief who befriended the white man in the early days of the Puget Sound country,” wrote one participant, “has appealed strongly to many of Seattle’s prominent citizens.” Those citizens made good on their sentiment; by the 1930s, Chief Seattle Day included special Black Ball Line excursions, picnicking, and saltwater swimming, while plans were under way to construct a baseball diamond and tennis courts next to the cemetery. Place of ClearWater, once a fusty impediment to civilization, had become a pilgrimage site for those wishing to commune with their urban indigenous past.2 ArthurDennymighthavebeenSeattle’sfoundingfather,butSeeathl— generous toward the settlers at Alki, powerfully articulate during treaty negotiations, and unswervingly loyal during the “IndianWar”—was its patron saint. Nowhere was this more obvious than in the bad poetry inspired by visits to his grave. One particularly florid example, penned by Professor Meany himself and using the old Whulshootseed name for Puget Sound, was read at the 1911 pilgrimage to Suquamish and later to the University of Washington’s graduating class of 1912: Peace be with thee in thy honored grave, O, Chieftain, as pilgrims we lovingly come, Drawn to a shrine by Whulge’s cool wave;— Suquamish, sad fragment, in fir-girdled home. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Slowly the smoke from the log cabin curled, From hearth of white stranger near wilderness shore, Hearth and a home at the edge of the world, With bold Saxon faith in a hut’s open door. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Raging with anger, demons of hate, The howling foes fought through the battle’s long day. Chieftain, O, Chieftain, blest was our fate! Thou stoodst like a rock in our tempest strewn way. Sweet be the flower, O, child, that you bring, T H E C H A N G E R S , C H A N G E D / 1 2 7 .168] Project MUSE (2024-04-26 11:57 GMT) And pure be the prayer that you Heavenward send, Soft be the song as wild robins sing,— A shrine in the grass by the grave of our friend. Seemingly the noblest of savages, Seeathl was the Indian benefactor to a Saxon city; the place-story of the man and the city that bore his name relied on two premises: a notion of a vanishing race and a belief in inevitable Anglo-American racial supremacy.3 Other would-be poets made the connection between Seeathl and Seattle even more explicit, often apostrophizing the person and the place in thesamestanzaasCaliforniaresidentFlorenceReynoldsdidinthe1920s: Oh! City so marvelously fair of face, You were born of a...