We are part of the earth and it is part of us.
The perfumed flowers are out sisters;
the deer, the horse, the great eagle,
these are our brothers.
The rocky crests, the juices of the meadows,
the body heat of the pony, and man
all belong to the same family.

So, when the Great Chief in Washington sends word
that he wishes to buy our land, he askes much of us.
We will consider your offer to buy our land.
If we decide to accept, I will make one condition:
the white man must treat the beast's of this land
as his brother.

I am a savage and I do not understand any other way.
I have seen thousand rotting buffalos on the prairie,
left by the white man who shot them from a passing train.
I am a savage and I do not understand how the smoking
iron horse can be more important than the buffalo
that we kill only to stay alive.

What is a man without the beasts?
If 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.

This we know. The earth does not belong to man,
man belongs to earth.
This we know. All things are connected like the blood
which unites one family.
All things are connected.

Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth.
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.


Chief Seattle 1854


[ Return ]