Tuesday 24 August 2010

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

The famous Words From Chief Seattle

Carlton Place, Ontario

Enroute to South western Ontario I read a popular prose piece by Chief Seattle to my young driver Niraj. It was his first time hearing it. He loved it. Thought I would share it here.

We are a part of the earth and it is a part of us.
The perfumed flowers are our sisters.
The deer, the horse, the great eagle,
These are our brothers.
The rocky crests, 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 asks much of us….

If we decide to accept, I will make one condition:
The white man must treat the beasts of this land as his brothers.
I am a savage and do not understand any other way.
I have seen a 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 we kill only to stay alive.

Where is man without the beasts?
If the beasts were gone, men would die
From a great loneliness of spirit.
For whatever happens to the beasts soon happens to man.
All things are connected.

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