Editing Chief Seattle (section)

=== Friendship with American settlers ===
[[Image:NoahSealth.jpg|thumb|Statue of Chief Seattle, 1908 by James When, [[Tilikum Place]], Seattle, Washington. The statue is on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].|312x312px]]After the death of his son and his conversion to [[Christianity]], Seattle began to seek cooperation with American settlers, retiring from fighting. He welcomed pioneers, inviting them to settle and trade with his people. Seattle began seeking contacts with businessmen and community leaders and gained a reputation as a "friend of the whites" among settlers.<ref name="HistoryLink" /><ref name=":0" /> Seattle and the Duwamish helped many early American settlers, guiding them along the Duwamish River and its tributaries, providing them with safe transportation, and helped clear forests for the cultivation of crops, and provided labor in early sawmills and farms.<ref name="Duwamish" />

Seattle was eventually contacted by [[Isaac Stevens]], the first Territorial Governor of Washington Territory, who recognized Seattle's prominence among his people. Seattle would go on to be the first signature on the 1855 [[Treaty of Point Elliott|Treaty of Point Elliot]] for the Suquamish, and all the peoples of the Duwamish River's watershed, including the Duwamish, [[Sammamish people|Sammamish]], [[Stkamish]], [[Smulkamish]], and [[Skopamish]] peoples, authorizing the cession of roughly 2.5 million acres of land to the United States.<ref name="HistoryLink" /><ref name=":0" />{{Sfn|Lane|1973|p=34}} It has been argued that Seattle had no authority to sign the treaties for the peoples of the upriver Duwamish River according to traditional governance, and that he and others did not realize governor Stevens' desire to alter the indigenous political systems and control the native population.{{Sfn|Lane|1973|p=35-36}}

The unpopular treaties caused many Duwamish to renounce Seattle's leadership. Alongside many other tribes, the Duwamish participated in the [[Puget Sound War]], a part of the broader [[Yakima War|Yakima Indian War]]. Despite this, Seattle supported the Americans in the conflict, providing them with valuable military intelligence.<ref name=":0" /> Seattle warned the American settlers of the impending attack and brought as many people as he could away from the fighting to the Port Madison reservation.<ref name="HistoryLink" /> After the war's conclusion with the defeat of Native forces, Seattle tried to help his people regain their footing and sought clemency for the Native leaders in the war, such as [[Leschi (Nisqually)|Leschi]].<ref name=":0" /> One reason for the war was the unratified treaty and illegal enforcement, so Seattle continuously advocated for the final ratification of the treaties.<ref name="HistoryLink" /><ref name=":0" /> He also tried to stop slave murder and curtail the influence of alcohol on the [[Port Madison Indian Reservation|Port Madison Reservation]]; he continued to try to resolve disputes elsewhere.<ref name=":0" />

Seattle continued to seek relationships with American settlers, eventually gaining relationships with [[David Swinson Maynard|Doc Maynard]], William De Shaw, and George Meigs, who all helped Seattle further his goals in helping the local Native and Settler populations. Despite his friendships with the Americans, the town forced Seattle to leave the city that bore his name in 1865 after the [[Town of Seattle Ordinance No. 5]] banned all Native Americans from the town unless housed and employed by a white settler. Seattle then moved to the Suquamish Reservation, but continued to visit the city often both to visit his American friends and gather with other Native Americans in temporary waterfront campsites.<ref name=":0" />

The Suquamish people, with whom Seattle eventually settled, continued to take care of Seattle and recognized him as their leader until his death, bringing him food and water to his house.<ref name="HistoryLink" /> Seattle died June 7, 1866, on the Port Madison Reservation after suffering from a brief yet severe fever.<ref name="HistoryLink" /><ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite book|title = The Many Speeches of Chief Seattle (Seathl): The Manipulation of the Record on Behalf of Religious Political and Environmental Causes|last = Gifford|first = Eli|year = 2015|isbn = 978-1-5187-4949-0|pages = 38–39| publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform }}</ref> His funeral was conducted with both Catholic and Suquamish traditions, and he was buried on the Port Madison Reservation. Although he was mourned locally on the reservation and by his friend and sawmill owner George Meigs, no other pioneers of the city of Seattle attended his funeral, and no newspaper covered the event. However, years after his death, in 1890, some early Seattle historians and pioneers visited his gravesite, adding a stone marker to the grave.<ref name="HistoryLink" />