|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
We shall consider your offer
to buy our land.
What is it that the White Man wants to buy?
my people will ask.
How can one sell the air
or buy the warmth of the earth?
It is difficult for us to imagine.
If we don't own the sweet air
or the bubbling water,
how can you buy it from us?
Each hillside of pines shining in the sun,
each sandy beach and rocky river bank,
every steep valley with bees humming
or mists hanging in dark woods,
has been made sacred by some event
in the memory of our people.
We are part of the earth
and the earth is part of us.
The fragrant flowers are our sisters;
the reindeer, the horse,
the great eagles, are our brothers.
The foamy crests of waves in the river,
the sap of meadow flowers,
the pony's sweat and the man's sweat
are one and the same thing.
So when the Great Chief in Washington
sends word that he wants to buy all these things,
we find it hard to understand.
By
Chief Seattle
