194 ❯ STEP 5. Build Your Test-Taking Confidence
12... Yonder sky that has wept tears of compassion upon my people for centuries
untold, and which to us appears changeless and eternal, may change. Today is fair.
Tomorrow it may be overcast with clouds. My words are like the stars that never
change. Whatever Seattle says the great chief at Washington can rely upon with as
much certainty as he can upon the return of the sun. The White Chief says that Big
Chief at Washington sends us greetings of friendship and goodwill. This is kind of
him for we know he has little need of our friendship in return. His people are many.
They are like the grass that covers vast prairies. My people are few. They resemble the
scattering trees of a storm-swept plain. The great, and I presume—good White Chief
sends us word that he wishes to buy our lands but is willing to allow us enough to live
comfortably. This indeed appears just, even generous, for the Red Man no longer has
rights that he need respect, and the offer may be wise, as we are no longer in need of an
extensive country.
There was a time when our people covered the land as the waves of a wind- ruffled
sea cover its shell-paved floor, but that time long since passed away with the greatness
of tribes that are now but a mournful memory. I will not dwell on, nor mourn over, our
untimely decay, nor reproach my paleface brothers with hastening it as we too may have
been somewhat to blame.
Question 2(Suggested time 40 minutes. This question counts as one-third of the total score for Section II.)Carefully read Chief Seattle’s oration to Governor Isaac I. Stevens, who had just returned from Washington,
D.C., with orders to buy Indian lands and create reservations. In a well-written essay, identify Chief Seattle’s
purpose and analyze the rhetorical strategies he uses to convey his purpose. Consider such items as figurative
language, organization, diction, and tone.
The Indians are today where civilized man then was. When visiting the Sioux, I was
led to the wigwam of the chief. It was just like the others in external appearance,
and even within the difference was trifling between it and those of the poorest of
his braves. The contrast between the palace of the millionaire and the cottage of the
laborer with us today measures the change which has come with civilization.
This change, however, is not to be deplored, but welcomed as highly beneficial. It is
well, nay, essential for the progress of the race, that the houses of some should be homes
for all that is highest and best in literature and the arts, and for all the refinements
of civilization, rather than that none should be so. Much better this great irregular-
ity than universal squalor. Without wealth there can be no Maecenas.^2 The “good old
times” were not good old times. Neither master nor servant was as well situated then
as today. A relapse to old conditions would be disastrous to both—not the least so to
him who serves—and would sweep away civilization with it. But whether the change
be for good or ill, it is upon us, beyond our power to alter, and therefore to be accepted
and made the best of. It is waste of time to criticize the inevitable.(^1) Late nineteenth-century American capitalist and philanthropist
(^2) Patron of the arts in ancient Rome