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Letter to the Editors: How Can We Buy the Air?

Dear Editors, In the last issue of The Aisling you published, probably in good faith, a version of Chief Seattle's speech together with Arne Naess's comments. I don't know why Arne Naess chose to publish this version - maybe it was the only one he knew - but the comments he wrote are misleading, perhaps because English is not his first language. The speech is not Ted Perry's version and it was not "recreated from Dr. Smith's jottings". Dr. Henry Smith recreated the speech himself from his own jottings, having visited Chief Seattle over several years to ensure that he had got it right. This version, written in somewhat flowery Victorian language, was published in 1887. The speech as published in 1887 was revised in the 1960s by William Arrowsmith under the guidance of tribal elders from the region into a version reflecting the speech patterns of local languages. This version, read out by William Arrowsmith at a meeting, was heard by Ted Perry, who then wrote his own speech for the film Home, inspired by Chief Seattle's speech. It was Ted Perry who introduced the "historical distortions and anachronisms" such as references to prairies and railways, referred to by Arne Naess in his notes . The speech was then altered by the producers of the film, who introduced patronising phrases like "I am a savage and I do not understand" and references to believing in the same God, and in the credits of the film they passed it off as the genuine speech of Chief Seattle without reference to either Ted Perry or their own alterations. Ted Perry has spent some time attempting to correct the story. Arne Naess's version seems to be that of the film with a prologue taken from a version portrayed as a letter to the President. Chief Seattle's original speech is a powerful lament for the passing of his people's way of life and the passing of the land into the hands of the white man. But it is not an environmentalist speech. All the echoes of modern environmentalism, like "We are a part of the earth and it is a part of us", "Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth", and "All things are connected" are additions. What has happened is not merely that a powerful cry has been altered with the insights of twentieth-century environmentalism. It is a sort of intellectual colonialism that does not allow the Native American idea to be heard in its own right. It is also perhaps that environmentalism lacks the self-confidence to write its own theory so it thinks its ideas are strengthened by being put into the mouth of a Native American chief. It is a pity that this story is still told in a distorted form. A search of the web shows that the inauthenticity of the film script was publicised by Newsweek in 1992 but was known previously. I write the notes above with the assistance of How can one sell the air? Chief Seattle's vision (Summertown (TN): Book Publishing Company, 1992), but I believe that I read the true story earlier. John Goodwillie, 69 Old County Road, Crumlin, Dublin 12. tel. (01) 454 0194

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