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...
ProfessionLeader
considered cost home men mothers revenge sons stay war
Revenge by young men is considered gain, even at the cost of their own lives, but old men who stay at home in times of war, and mothers who have sons to lose, know better.
people resemble
My people are few. They resemble the scattering trees of a storm-swept plain.
die great man
What is man without the beasts? For if all the beast were gone, man would die of a great loneliness of the spirit.
buy freshness
If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?
alone among dead deal earth invisible kindly last man men red shall shores white
When the last red man shall have perished from the earth and his memory among the white men shall have become a myth, these shores will swarm with the invisible dead of my tribe. The white man will never be alone. Let him be just and deal kindly with my people, for the dead are not powerless.
angry black cruel faces grow hearts imaginary men thus unable women
Youth is impulsive. When our young men grow angry at some real or imaginary wrong, and disfigure their faces with black paint, it denotes that their hearts are black, and that they are often cruel and relentless, and our old men and old women are unable to restrain them. Thus it has ever been.
cannot god love people protect rapidly tide
Our people are ebbing away like a rapidly receding tide that will never return. The white man's God cannot love our people, or He would protect them.
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.