怎能出賣天空

怎能出賣天空
這幾個字是在慈濟最近辦的教師學習營看到的
特別觸動我

是誰，那麼狂妄
連天空都敢賣

由於學習營上老師只是點到為止
回家後迫不及待Google一番
才發現這是一個印第安酋長寫給華盛頓白人政府的信函
英文版本為the statement of chief Seattle

1854年
白人佔據了印第安人的土地
然後要印第安人把最後土地賣給他們

雖然網上說我們現在看到的版本是一位編劇Ted Perry 改編的
不是原文
無論是否是原稿
裏頭的文字值得我們深思
印第安人對孕育他們的土地和天空有很深的感恩
字裡行間蘊含的智慧
是自認聰明的我們需要反省檢討的。

Misattributed[edit]

The following quotes, purportedly taken from a letter, in which Seattle pleaded that his name should die with the ceding of the Washington State territories, was shown in 1992 to have been a forgery, devised by television scriptwriter Ted Perry for a historical epic in 1971.^[1]

• Every part of all this soil is sacred to my people. Every hillside, every valley, every plain and grove has been hollowed by some sad or happy event in days long vanished. The very dust you now stand on responds more willingly to their footsteps than to yours, because it is rich with the blood of our ancestors and

• our bare feet are conscious of the sympathetic touch.

• Let him be just and deal kindly with my people, for the dead are not powerless. Dead, did I say? There is no death, only change of worlds.

• We know that the white man does not understand our ways. One portion of the land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs. The earth is not his brother, but his enemy - and when he has conquered it, he moves on. He leaves his fathers' graves, and his children’s birthright is forgotten.

• Tribe follows tribe, nations follow nations like the tides of the sea. It is the order of nature, and regret is useless.

• Today is fair. Tomorrow may be overcast with clouds. My words are like the stars that never change.

• How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land?

• 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 humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people

• The sap which courses through the trees carries the memory of the red man.

• The perfumed flowers are our sisters, the deer, the horse, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the juices in the meadows, the body heat of the pony, and man - all belong to the same family. This shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water but the blood of our ancestors.

• If we sell you land, you must remember that it is sacred, and you must teach your children that it is sacred and that the ghostly reflection in the clear water of the lakes tells us events and memories in the life of my people. The water's murmur is the voice of my father's father. The rivers are our brothers, they quench our thirst. The rivers carry our cannoes, feed our children. If we sell our land, you must learn, and teach your children, that the rivers are our brothers, and yours, and you must henceforth give the rivers the kindness you would give any brother.

• You must teach the children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of

• your grandfathers. So that they will respect the land, tell your children that the earth is rich with the lives of our kin. Teach your children what we have taught our children, that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth, befalls the sons of the earth. If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves.

• Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.

• The Earth does not belong to man; man belongs to 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.

• What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, men would die from great loneliness of spirit, for whatever happens to the beasts also happens to the man.

"In 1851 Seattle, chief of the Suquamish and other Indian tribes around Washington's Puget Sound, delivered what is considered to be one of the most beautiful and profound environmental statements ever made. The city of Seattle is named for the chief, whose speech was in response to a proposed treaty under which the Indians were persuaded to sell two million acres of land for $150,000." -- B Path.

• Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.