Agnes Krocha
This is the statement of an unknown environmentalist, a Red Indian Chief, who replied to the Great White Chief in Washington (President of USA) regarding his proposal for sale of land more than 150 years ago.
“The Great Chief in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. 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? So when the Great Chief in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land, he asks much of us. But we will consider your offer to buy our land; it will not be easy, for this land is sacred to us. The rivers are our brothers; they quench our thirst. The rivers carry our canoes and feed our children. If we sell you our land you must remember and teach your children that the rivers are our brothers and yours. And you must give the kindness you give any brother.
But if we sell you our land, you must remember that the air is precious to us. That the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports. The winds that gave our grandfather his first breath also received his last sigh. And the wind must also give our children what we have taught our children; that the earth is our mother; whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. If man spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves. This we know. The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. All things are connected. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does it to himself.
When the last Red man has vanished from this earth and his memory is only a 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 the newborn loves its mother’s heartbeat. So, if we sell our land, love it as we loved it. Care for it as we have care for it. Hold in your mind the memory of the land as it is when you take it with all your strength, with all your mind and with all your heart, preserve it for your children and love it as God loves us all.”
Of all the planets in the solar system, earth is the only planet sustaining life. And of all life forms on earth man alone is the ultimate receiving end. Everything on earth seems to be created for man’s benefit. It’s up to us to preserve the earth or destroy it. But when we have destroyed it, where can we buy another earth? Indeed! Whatever befalls the earth befalls mankind!
