Book Review: Chief Seattle

Chief Seattle and the Town That Took His Name: The Change of Worlds for the Native People and Settlers on Puget Sound

By David M. Buerge (Sasquatch Books, 2017)

It’s hard to fathom that there was a time in the recent past when the words of leaders went unrecorded, a time about which historians must grapple with a lack of resources to analyze rather than being challenged by endless mountains of material. The great challenge in writing the first full-length biography of Chief Seattle is that it depends in part on legend and filling in gaps of the historical record as well as understanding now-lost tribal languages.