HOW CAN YOU BUY OR SELL SKY?
The president in Washington sends me word that he wants to buy our land. But how can you buy or sell the sky? How can you sell the Earth? This thought is strange to us. If we do not own fresh air and clear water, how can you buy it? Every bit of land is sacred to my people. Every glistening pine needle, every sand bank, every mist in the dark woods, every meadow, every buzzing insect. All this is sacred in the memory and experiences of my people. We know the tree sap that travels through the trunks as we know the blood that circulates through our veins.
We are part of the earth and it is part of us. Fragrant flowers are our sisters. The bear, the deer, the great eagle, these are our brothers. Rocky ridges, meadow sap, pony body heat, and man all belong to the same family. The sparkling water that flows in streams and rivers is not just water, but the blood of our ancestors.
If we sell you land, you must not forget that it is sacred. Every reflection of the spirit in the clear lake waters speaks of the events and memories of my people. The murmur of the water is the voice of the father’s father. Rivers are our sisters. They quench our thirst. They carry our canoes and feed the children. Therefore, you should be kind to rivers as you are to sisters.
If we sell you the land, remember that the air is precious to us because it shares its spirit with all the life it supports. The wind that breathed our grandfather’s first breath also receives his last sigh. The wind also gives our children the spirit of life. So if we sell you the land, you must keep it special and sacred as a place where one can go to taste the wind sweetened with meadow flowers.
Will you teach your children what we taught ours? That the earth is our mother? What befalls the earth befalls all her sons. We know something: 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, but is only a thread in it. Whatever you do to the network, you do to yourself.
One thing we know: our God is also your God. The earth is precious to him, and whoever injures it accumulates contempt for its creator. Your fate is a mystery to us.
What will happen when you slaughter all the bison? Tame wild horses? What will happen when the hidden corners of the forest become heavy with the smell of the human crowd and the view of the ripe hills is soiled by talking wires? Where will the thicket be? She will be gone. Where will the eagle be? He will be gone.
And what will happen when you say goodbye to the fast pony and the hunting grounds? It will be the end of life and the beginning of survival. When the last Red Man with his wilderness is gone, and his memory is but the shadow of a cloud traveling across the prairie, will these banks and woods still be here? Will there be any spirit left of my people?
We love this earth like a newborn loves the beat of its mother’s heart. So if we sell you this land, love it as we have always loved it. Take care of her as we take care of her. Keep in mind the memory of the earth as you received it.
Keep her for all children and love her as God loves us all. As we are part of the earth, so are you. This land is precious to us. It is precious to you too.
One thing we know: there is only one God. No man, whether Red man or White man, can be separated from others. We are brothers after all.
(Translated in Slovenian language by Jana Cedilnik, translated on English by Google translater )
