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Chief Seattle's Address - Washington 1894

How can you buy or sell the sky? The warmth of the land?

Every part of the Earth is sacred.

Every shining pine needle. Every sandy shore.

Every mist in the dark woods.

Every clearing and every humming insect is holy.

We are part of the Earth and it is part of us.

The perfumed flowers are our sisters.

The deer, the horse, the great eagle.

These are our brothers.

The rocky crests... The juices in the meadow...

The body heat of the pony... And man.

All belong to the same family.

The rivers are our brothers. They quench our thirst.

Remember - and teach your children

- that the rivers are our brothers

and give the rivers

the kindness you would give to any brother.

What is there to life if a man cannot hear the lonely cry

of the whip-poor-will, or the arguments

of the frogs around the pool at night?

Or the soft sound of the wind darting over the face of a pond?

The air is precious for all things share the same breath.

The beast, the tree, the man. They share the same breath.

Remember that the air is precious.

That it shares its spirit with all the life it supports.

Without the beasts man would die from

a great loneliness of spirit.

Whatever happens to the beasts must soon happen to man.

All things are connected.

The Earth does not belong to man. Man belongs to the 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 Earth.

Man did not weave the web of life. He is merely a strand in it.

Whatever he does to the Earth he does to himself.

To harm the Earth is to heap contempt on its Creator.

We are part of the Earth. It is part of us.

Tell your children.

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