What would he say today?
CHIEF SEATTLE’S SPEECH, 1852
“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.
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. All are holy in the memory and experience of my people. 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.
Each ghostly 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 carry
our canoes and feed our children.
If we sell you our land, remember that the air is precious to us,
that the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports. The wind
that gave our grandfather his first breath also receives his last sigh.
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 it to himself.
Your destiny is a mystery to us. What will happen when the
buffalo are all slaughtered? 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? 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 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 all.
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.”
—Chief Seattle
