His last years were passed at Port Madison, where he died in 1866, at a great age.
Governor Stevens confirmed his sachemship, and Seattle became the protector and the good genius of the town.

A curious legend, which seems to be well founded, is related of a tax which Seattle levied upon the new town, for the sake of the trouble that the name would give him in the spiritual world.

When a Dwamish Indian lost a near relative of the same name by death, he changed his own name, because the name might attract the ghost of the deceased, and so cause him to be haunted.

The tribe believed that departed spirits loved their old habitations, and the associations of their names and deeds, and so they changed their names and places on the death of relatives, that they might not be disturbed by ghostly apparitions.
"Why do you ask for a tax ?" asked a pioneer of Seattle.
"The name of the town will call me back after I am dead, and make me unhappy.

I want my pay for what I shall suffer then, now." I hope that the rapid growth of the great city of the North does not disquiet the gentle and benevolent soul of Seattle.