Chief Seattle, on behalf of the Duwamish people, speaking on behalf of tribes living in the Northwest region of America, delivered a message to the U.S. President at the time, Franklin Pearce. Pearce's administration had proposed a variety of settlements where the Indian's could live in peace later to be called reservations. He said to the Native people, "You may select your favorite valleys and dwell there forever." Of course, all treaties that came from this were broken as settlers became hungry for more gold. Each time something was found on Indian land the Indians were chased off so people could take what they wanted. This is still happening today.

Speech to Franklin Pearce

"One thing we know that the white man may discover: Our God is the same God. You may think that you own him as you wish to own our land, but you cannot. He is the God of man, and his compassion is equal for the redman and for the white. This Earth is precious to him, and to harm the Earth is to heap contempt on its Creator.

fffffffffWhen the last Redman has vanished from the Earth, and the memory is only the shadow of a cloud moving across the prairie, these shores and forest will still hold the spirits of my people, for they love the Earth as a newborn loves its mother's heartbeat.

If we sell you our land, love it as we have cared for it. Hold it in your mind, the memory of the land as it is when you take it. And with all your strength, with all your might, and with all your heart, preserve it for your children and love it as God loves us all. One thing we know. Our God is the same God. This Earth is precious to him. . .

We cannot buy or sell the sky, of the warmth of the land. We do not own the the freshness of the air or the sparkle of the water.

Every part of the Earth is sacred. Every shining pine needle. Every sandy shore. Every mist in the dark woods. Every clearing. Every humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people.

But to the white man, one portion of the land is the same as the next. The Earth is an enemy which is there to be conquered. He kidnaps the Earth for his children. He does not care. His appetite will devour the Earth and leave behind only a desert.

There is no quiet place in the cities. No place to hear the waves of the spring or the rustle of insects' wings. The clatter only seems to insult the ears. The Indian prefers the soft sound of the wind darting over the face of the pond, and the smell of the wind itself cleansed by the midday rain, or scented with Pinion Pine.

The air is precious to the Redman, for all things share the same breath - the beasts, the trees, the man. The white man does not seem to notice the air he breathes. Like a man dying for many days he is numb to the smell of his own stench."

Chief Seattle said that if he signed a treaty he would make one condition;

"The white man must treat the beasts of this land as his brothers. For what is man without the beasts? If the beasts were gone, men would die from great loneliness of the spirit, for whatever happens to the beasts also happens to man. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons of Earth."

- Chief Seattle, mid-nineteenth century (1850's I believe)

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