Chief Seattle's Message

Got this a while back from my friend and Union Brother, Henry Duys, also known as Gravedigger, due to the fact that he drives a 1966 Pontiac hearse, (hey, gotta be a little strange to claim friendship with me).

Anyway, my Brother spadoman left me a comment this morning that kinda tore me up, through no fault of his own, let me add.

So I thought I would post this for him, to kind of help reconnect his soul to the Mother again.

In doing so, I have found that I actually helped myself.

Now I know there is debate about this particular speech, whether or not it is accurate. That really doesn't matter. It is the "feeling" I am connecting with, not the actual words. The words are only the medium.



So, don't "read" it, "feel" it.

Maybe it will help you reconnect too.

d.


Chief Seattle's Letter

'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 the 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 received 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 with talking wires?

Where will the thicket be?
Gone!
Where will the eagle be?
Gone!
And what is to say goodbye to the swift pony and then 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 all brothers after all."