When Lying Becomes History: Was the Noble Savage Really Noble?

Will the real Chief Seattle
please stand up.

I recently read an article in Chronicles, my favorite magazine of cultural commentary, that got me thinking about the idea of the "noble savage." Roger McGrath penned an article titled The Indians Who Never Were about Chief Seattle and the myth surrounding him. The chief supposedly delivered an inspiring speech in 1854 questioning government purchase of Indian lands during negotiations of a treaty. Here's a bit of what he supposedly said:

How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them? Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clearing and humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people. The sap which courses through the trees carries memories of the red man. The white man’s dead forget the country of their birth when they go to walk among the stars. Our dead never forget this beautiful earth, for it is the mother of the red man . . .