The bronze statue of Chief Seattle, for whom the city is named 
, stands in Tilikum Place (meaning friends, tribe, welcome in Chinook Jargon). It was sculpted by Seattle artist James A. Wehn, who also designed the city’s seal. 
The right side of the monument shows Chief Seattle sighting HMS Discovery – the first vessel in Puget Sound.
Who was the commander of this vessel?
Suquamish Chief Noah Sealth (c. 1790–1866) maintained a peaceful relationship with the area’s first white settlers, who mispronounced his name as “Seattle.”
Chief Seattle retired to the Port Madison Indian Reservation and, in spite of his own disappointments, did his best to prevent violence and remained on friendly terms with Maynard, Denny, Bell, and other leaders in the new city of Seattle. His only known photograph and his most famous speech were both taken and given in Seattle.
Source: Clio: Your Guide to History
In 1907, the city commissioned James A. Wehn to design a sculpture to be placed at the intersection of the property boundaries of Seattle founders Carson Boren, William Bell, and Arthur Denny. Unfortunately, the casting was so unacceptable to the sculptor that Wehn loaded the plaster cast into a wheelbarrow and dumped it into the bay, threatening to abandon the project altogether if he was not given creative control.
Wehn spent 1911 in Suquamish villages and used the only photograph ever taken of Chief Seattle to create a second statue, which was cast in New York in 1912. He sculpted Chief Seattle in a pose he was widely remembered for — arm raised in greeting — with his signature Hudson’s Bay four-point blanket.
The statue was unveiled on November 13, 1912 by Chief Seattle’s great-great-granddaughter, Myrtle Loughery.
