SEPTEMBER 1993 **Our 52nd Season** 227

A reflection on what could happen to your earth due to unwise use was apparent over 100 years ago in a letter written by an Indian Chief, Chief Seattle. It was read to me around a campfire in the wilderness this summer. I would like to share with you excerpts from it. "In about 1852, the United States Government inquired about buying the tribal lands for the arriving people of the United States, and Chief Seattle wrote a marvelous letter in reply. "The President in Washington sends you word that he wishes to buy our land. But how can you buy or sell the sky? 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. "If we sell you our land, remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports. The wind that gave us our grandfather his first breath also receives his last sigh. The wind also gives our children the spirit of life. So if we sell you our land, you must keep it apart and sacred, as a place where man can go to taste the wind that is sweetened by meadow flowers. "Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our mother? What befalls the earth befalls all the sons of earth. "This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like blood that unites us all. 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. "Your destiny is a mystery to us. What will happen when the buffalo are all slaughtered? The wild horses tamed? What will happen when the secret corners of the forest are heavy with the scent of many men and the view of the ripe hills is blotted by talking wires? Where will the thicket be? Gone! Where will the eagle be? Gone! And what is it to say goodbye to the swift pony and the hunt? The end of living and the beginning of survival. "We loved this earth as a newborn loves its mother's heartbeat. So, if we sell you our land, love it as we have loved it. Care for it as we have cared for it. Hold in your mind the memory of all children and love it. I'm sure some of you have heard Chief Seattle"s letter before. For me it was the first time. I was really moved. From Joseph Campbell. The Power of Myth, with Bill Movers

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