Oud Indiaanse kijk

In 1854 werd aan opperhoofd Si'ahl (aan wie de stad Seattle haar naam dankt) door de blanke regering een bod gedaan op het resterende land van z’n stam, de Duwamish. Het betoog dat hij hield als antwoord aan de afgevaardigde delegatie spreekt sterk tot de verbeelding en hoewel er over de precieze inhoud en vertaling veel discussie bestaat, is de strekking ervan een eigen, aanstekelijk leven gaan leiden onder bijvoobeeld natuurliefhebbers, pacifisten en jan-modalen als ik.

(Een deel van) Chief 'Seattle's' Speech, ingesproken door Joseph Campbell

"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

Every part of this earth is sacred to my people

Every shining pine needle

Every sandy shore

Every mist in the dark woods

Every meadow

All are holy in the memory and experience of my people

We’re 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

Each ghostly reflection in the clear water 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 carry our canoes and feed our children

If we sell you our land, remember that the air is precious to us

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

The wind that gave our grandfather his first breath

Also receives his last sigh

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

Men did not weave the web of life

He is merely a strand in it

Whatever he does to the web he does to himself

Your destiny is a mystery to us

What will happen when the buffalo are all slaughtered?

What will happen when the secret corners of the forest

Are heavy with the sand of many men

And the view of the ripe hills is blooded by talking wires?

The end of living and the beginning of survival

When the last red man has vanished with his 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 spirit of my people left?

We love this earth as a new born loves his mother’s heartbeat

So if we sell you our land

Love it as we’ve loved it

Care for it as we’ve 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 all

One thing we know

There is only one God

No man, be he red man, or white man, can be apart

We are brothers, after all."