Understand
the richness of gifts that cannot be purchased with money. Chief Seattle said it
this way;
“The
President in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. But how can
you buy or sell the sky? 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 meadow, every humming insect. All
are holy in the memory and experience of my people.
We know the
sap which courses through the trees as we know the blood that courses through
our veins. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers
are our sisters. The bear, the deer, the great eagle, these are our brothers.
The rocky crests, the dew in the meadow, the body heat of the pony, and man all
belong to the same family. The shining water that moves in the streams and rivers
is not just water, but the blood of our ancestors.
If we sell
you our land, you must remember that it is sacred. Each glossy reflection in
the clear waters of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of my
people. The water’s murmur is the voice of my father’s father. The rivers are
our brothers. They quench our thirst. They carry our canoes and feed our children.
So you must give the rivers the kindness that you would give any brother.
If we sell
you our land, remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its
spirit with all the life that it supports. The wind that gave our grandfather
his first breath also receives his last sigh. The wind also gives our children
the spirit of life. So if we sell our land, you must keep it apart and sacred,
as a place where man can go to taste the wind that is sweetened by the meadow
flowers.
Will you
teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our
mother? What befalls the earth befalls all the sons of the earth.
This we
know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things
are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of
life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.
One thing we
know: our God is also your God. The earth is precious to him and to harm the
earth is to heap contempt on its creator.
Your destiny
is a mystery to us. What will happen when the buffalo are all slaughtered? The
wild horses tamed? What will happen when the secret corners of the forest are
heavy with the scent of many men and the view of the ripe hills is blotted by
talking wires? Where will the thicket be? Gone! Where will the eagle be? Gone! And
what is it to say goodbye to the swift pony and the hunt? The end of living and
the beginning of survival. When the last Red Man has vanished with this
wilderness, and his memory is only the shadow of a cloud moving across the
prairie, will these shores and forests still be here? Will there be any of the
spirit of my people left?
We love this
earth as a newborn loves its mother’s heartbeat. So, if we sell you our land,
love it as we have loved it. Care for it, as we have cared for it. Hold in your
mind the memory of the land, as it is when you receive it. Preserve the land for
all children, and love it, as God loves us. As we are part of the land, you too
are part of the land. This earth is precious to us. It is also precious to you.
One thing we know there is only one God. No man be he Red Man or White Man can
be apart. We are brothers after all.”
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