In Class Writing: Luther Standing Bear and Chief Seattle's speech

In the Luther Standing Bear statement, he talks about the differences between “white man” and his tribe, the Lakotas. He explains that what “white man” sees as wild, like animals and wilderness, the Lakotas see as tame. They feel that the animals have just as many rights as they did, and they therefore never enslaved animals, and they only killed what they needed for food and clothing, a very different way of thinking than that of the Europeans. Chief Seattle’s speech covers the fact that his tribe’s relevance is significantly decreasing because of the Europeans bit by bit taking over their land. Also, he feels that the Europeans are not treating them as an equal but rather inferior.

Chief Seattle’s speech has long been controversial. Did he really speak these words? Or is it just a story that Dr. Smith made up? Several issues come out of this speech. For one, records of him giving this speech have been translated. There is no record of the speech in its original language. For another, it has been revised and retranslated so many times in the last century. There were even lines that were added. So how do we know for sure if these were the words he spoke, or were they just put in his mouth? This is one of the biggest mysteries, one that will more than likely never be solved.

Remembering Chief Seattle: Reversing Cultural Studies of a Vanishing Native American

Crisca Bierwert

American Indian Quarterly

Vol. 22, No. 3 (Summer, 1998), pp. 280-304

Published by: University of Nebraska Press

Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org.prox.lib.ncsu.edu/stable/1184814

Chief Seattle's speech: real or not?

As I was reading this speech, I found myself torn. Part of me thinks it's hard to make something like this up, and another thinks that it does sound awfully poetic. The person who supposedly translated it doesn't know the language that Seattle's people speak. Some of the things he said were a little strange too. He basically said that they were not worried about losing more of their homeland to the Europeans. I wouldn't think that that would be the case. However, I guess we will never really know whether it happened for real or not.

Controversy in China

While hydro power is one of the most productive forms of alternative energy, it does not come without controversy. It was first proposed over 90 years ago by Sun Yat Sen, but it wasn't until 1992 when Chinese premier Li Peng proposed the 3 Gorges Dam, set to be one of the largest dams in the world, that it was built. The project cost $180 billion. It was meant to control the flow of the Yangtze River, as well as provide electricity, ultimately to boost their economy. While it has done just that, it has also created a new range of problems. The dam is preventing the river from getting rid of pollutants, leading to a significant decrease in the quality of the water supply, causing soil erosion, which results in landslides, and forced more than 1.4 million citizens to move. This is causing much controversy, and will continue to do so until these problems are fixed.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1671000,00.html

TVA

I saw a story this morning about the Tennessee Valley Authority. They are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Ocoee dams. These dams have been providing cheap, efficient hydro electric power for the area since September 24th, 1911. It started out as just one dam, but in 1939, a second one was built, and a third one in 1942 during World War II. The first dam produces enough electricity to power over 14,000 homes. This goes to show you that this hydro power has been around for centuries, and it is one of the most promising alternative energies currently in use today.

http://www.brighterenergy.org/26626/news/marine-hydro/tva-celebrates-100-years-of-hydropower-at-ococee-dam/