How can we buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land?
This idea is strange to us.
If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can we buy them?
Every part of the earth is sacred to my people.
Every shiny pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods.
Every clearing and every humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people.
All things share the same breath.
We will consider your offer to buy the land but I will make one condition;
the white man must treat the beasts like their brothers.
What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts are gone, men will die from a great loneliness of spirit.
For whatever happens to the beasts soon happens to man.
All things are connected. This we know. The earth does not belong to man – man belongs to the earth.
This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unties one family. All things are connected!
Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth.
Man does not weave the web of life he is merely a strand of it.
Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.
~ Chief Seattle
I was researching a little about Chief Seattle and found that he lived until 80yrs old. (1786 – 1866) This was quite an age for someone literally living on the land. He was Chief of the Suquamish and Duwamish peoples. Early on he realised that the white man was going to defeat the Indians due to their numbers and made many attempts to broker peace as well as educate white settlers and a true ecologist asked that the white man adopt the Indian principles of caring for the land and its animals. Of course they rarely listened and we are fully aware of the outcome. The attached poem was a part of his discussion with leaders of the time. Seattle was named after him, an Anglicised version of his name – or course.