Luther Standing Bear + Chief Seattle Synthesis

The Native Americans were a proud, humble people, as described in Luther Standing Bear's statement: The Living Spirit of the Indian.  I believe he's conveying that the bonds the Native American peoples had with their noble ancestors were weakening at the time, and that assimilation started taking root.  The old ways were moved aside in order to accommodate the white man's take on life.  As the Oglalan chief said, if he were to suckle a child, he would raise him as a Native American as opposed to the new, imposed lifestyle that was forced on the indigenous peoples.

Chief Seattle's speech was more of a satirical version of Luther Standing Bear's statement; he had a more submissive approach for the indigenous people of Washington.  He said that his people should come to terms with the whites encroaching their lands, as opposed to increasing the amount of blood spilt.  He pretty much also said their God had abandoned them, and the God of the whites hated the red peoples.   That being said, he did not lose the values of the Native Americans, as he suggested they live 'separately' from the whites, preserving their way of life on the little reserve the whites allotted them.

However, it's important to note that the validity surrounding Chief Seattle's noteworthy speech is controversial.  It was published by a man named Dr. Henry Smith nearly thirty years after the speech was delivered.  Smith claims to have heard Seattle's speech, and took detailed notes that he would later use to make the publication.  Of course, that beckons questions to tackle the obscurity: would he have understood Seattle, seeing as it's a possibility that the great chief gave the speech in his native tongue?  How do we know that his words weren't altered?  Were there multiple authors of this speech aside from Chief Seattle?  Why are there two versions of the speech?  And how could Smith be entirely accurate, given he published the speech thirty years after its deliverance going off of a few jotted-down notes?

It's all very sketchy.  Any theory is possible: Smith could have altered the diction, embedded Victorian mindsets that opposed Native American rebellion, or those could actually be the genuine words of the wizened chief--the chances of that are slim.  Unfortunately, while it's absolutely possible that whites may have added or altered the speech in its entirety, the Native Americans of that time period were "eager to claim, use, and translate" whatever might've improved their image (University of Washington).