A couple of years ago when I worked in the corporate world I had a poster in my office of the Duwamish Chief Sealth (Seattle) and text from a letter he wrote to President Peirce on the subject of the US buying Native American land. Sealth's reply is one of the most prophetic and inspiring speeches ever on the environment. A lot of people copied it off me and put it in their offices also. There are several versions of this letter and subsequent speech out there, and so a lot of controversy about which is the original, but this is the one I like best...
The Great Chief in Washington sends words that he wishes to buy our land. The Great Chief also sends us words of friendship and good will. This is kind of him, since we know he has little need of our friendship in return. But we will consider your offer.
How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?
Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle,every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clearing, and every humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people. The sap which courses through the trees carries the memories of the red man. So, when the Great Chief of Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land, he asks much of us...
This we know: All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the son of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it.
Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. But we will consider your offer to go to the reservation you have for my people. We will live apart, and in peace.
One thing we know, which the white man may one day 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 red man and the white. The earth is precious to Him and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its Creator. The whites too shall pass; perhaps sooner than all other tribes. Continue to contaminate your bed, and you will one night suffocate in your own waste. But in your perishing you will shine brightly, fired by the strength of the God who brought you to this land and for some special purpose gave you dominion over this land and over the red man. That destiny is a mystery to us, for we do not understand when the buffalo are all slaughtered, the wild horses are tamed, and the view of the ripe hills blotted by talking wire.
Where is the thicket? Gone. Where is the eagle? Gone. And what is it to say goodbye to the swift pony and the hunt? The end of living and the beginning of survival. So we will consider your offer to buy the land.
If we agree, it will be to secure the reservation you have promised. There, perhaps, we may live our our brief days as we wish. When the last red man has vanished from the earth, and his memory is only the shadow of a cloud moving across the prairie, these shores and forests will still hold the spirits of my people.
For they love this earth as a new borne loves its mother's heartbeat. So, if we sell 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 take it. And 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. Even the white man cannot be exempt from the common destiny. We may be brothers after all.
We shall see...
