What Did Chief Seattle Actually Say?

Chief Seattle's speech is very famous and well known. However much controversy surrounds the speech itself, and its authenticity. Henry A. Smith is the author of the famous speech from 1854. The controversy starts here. When was this speech actually given? Was Smith even present when the speech was given? Arnold Krupat investigates the validity of Smiths summary of Chief Seattle's speech. Krupat talks about the discourse in dates and gives reason why he thinks the speech was given in January, and also notes that he thinks Smith supplemented the speech with information that he had heard was said at the Point Elliot talks. This is just one of many of the discourses in the speech and Krupat investigates many of them. After reading Krupat's article it is clear to me that Smith identified with Chief Seattle in the sense that he felt his "middle class" was going to die out just as Chief Seattle thought the same about his people. The authenticity of Chief Seattle's speech is only altered by the fact that it is more of a summary of multiple speeches supplemented by imagery from Smith.  

The article by Arnold Krupat can be found here.

Smiths article on Chief Seattle's speech can be found here.