Chief Seattle
Chief Seattle
Chief Seattlewas a Dkhw'Duw'Abshchief. A prominent figure among his people, he pursued a path of accommodation to white settlers, forming a personal relationship with "Doc" Maynard. The city of Seattle, in the U.S. state of Washington, was named after him. A widely publicized speech arguing in favor of ecological responsibility and respect of Native Americans' land rights had been attributed to him. However, what he actually said has been lost through translation and rewriting...
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night waste bed
Contaminate your bed and you will one night suffocate in your own waste.
lonely nature night
What is there to life if a man cannot hear the lonely cry of the whippoorwill or the arguments of the frogs around the pool at night?
brother moving night
We know that the white man does not understand our ways. One portion of land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs. The earth is not his brother, but his enemy, and when he has conquered it, he moves on.
approach cannot dwell man mist morning night red white
Day and night cannot dwell together. The Red Man has ever fled the approach of the White Man, as the morning mist flees before the morning sun.
animals beasts die great happens loneliness man soon whatever
What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man. All things are connected.
belong earth
Earth does not belong to us; we belong to earth.
ashore community door encounters opened records ship
Every door opened others. The records show some interesting encounters with a very complicated community on the ship with a complicated community ashore
native-american people earth
Every part of the earth is sacred to my people.
father voice water
The water's murmur is the voice of my father's father.
earth-day earth
There is no such place as away.
men doe earth
Man belongs to the Earth, Earth does not belong to man
native-american heart earth
Your religion was written on tablets of stone, ours on our hearts. 8. We are part of the earth and the earth is part of us.
regret native-american sea
Tribe follows tribe, nations follow nations like the tides of the sea. It is the order of nature, and regret is useless.
strong children hate
Your God loves your people and hates mine; he folds his strong arms lovingly around the white man and leads him as a father leads his infant son, but he has forsaken his red children; he makes your people wax strong every day, and soon they will fill the land; while my people are ebbing away like a fast-receding tide, that will never flow again. The white man's God cannot love his red children or he would protect them. They seem to be orphans who can look nowhere for help.