Luther Standing Bear and Chief Seattle in-class writing

In the first part of the Luther Standing Bear piece, he talks about the connection he and his people feel with the land on which they live as well as the creatures that live that.  He talks of a brotherly feeling between that two worlds that keeps them both connected.  This tie between the two led to respect for each other and the animals had rights that were protected.  They could live in piece with man.  The general theme of the second part is simply how the "white man" does not understand the "Indian" way of living.  Their worlds are so different and the way they were brought up is different.  He explains how Indians have a connection to their forefathers and the land and they are dead only when they forget those ties.

In the Chief Seattle piece, Chief Seattle speaks of a great time when Native Americans covered the land and the white influence was not upon them.  He goes on to say that his has clearly changed and his opinion ultimately changed for the worse.  He says that the white man does not look out for the Native Americans and more specifically the white god does not look out for Native Americans.  The white god only cares about his people and is only making life better for the white man.  He also says that his own god has forgotten his people because life is getting worse and he is not doing anything to make it better.  In general, the major theme is that Chief Seattle is not happy with what is happening to his people and how their way of life is being destroyed.

Part 2
Chief Seattle's speech is surrounded with a lot of controversy. For one, it was published 33 years after Chief Seattle supposedly gave it and the man who published it did not even speak Salish, which is the language Chief Seattle would have given the speech in.  Also, Dr. Smith was a poet and some people think the speech is very similar to some of Dr. Smith's other poetry.  To add to the suspicion, Dr. Smith openly admitted that he was not even present when Chief Seattle first gave his speech.  What proof is there then that the version he wrote down is accurate at all.  There could have been many details changed in the version that was told to him and there could be very few similarities to the original speech given by Chief Seattle.  There are many other versions of the speech and there are other fake speeches that were supposedly given by Chief Seattle.  All these factors raise suspicion about the piece and cause a lot of authorship controversy.