In 1855, the President of the United States, Franklin Pierce, offered the Duwamish and Suquamish, a now extinct Native American people in what is now Washington State, to sell their land to white settlers and retire to a reservation.
Indigenous people like these were not familiar with selling and buying land. The way Seattle, chief of the Duwamish, reacted is proof:
If we don’t own the air’s freshness and the water’s sparkle, how can you buy them from us? […] We are a part of the earth, and it is a part of us.
A eurythmy project led by Dong-Won Lim, Rob Barendsma, and Bart-Jeroen Kool brings the spirit of this speech to the stage. The international project ensemble’s program is called ‹Earth Cry – How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land?›. The ensemble started its performances at the Goetheanum and has now gone on tour.
«Whatever affects the earth also affects the earth’s children; whatever happens to the animals – will soon happen to humans. Everything is connected. What humans do to the earth, they do to themselves.» These are the admonishing words of the Native American leader, who also bridges the gap: «Perhaps we would be able to understand you if we knew what you were dreaming of.»
Goetheanum, Eurythmy guest performance, September 3rd, 19:00 – Translation by Simone Ioannou
The Duwamish und Suquamish are not extinct! They continue to live and thrive on their land in Washington State. See, for example, http://www.duwamishtribe.org; http://www.squamish.net; more information also available on Wikipedia
Markus Bruce Heyder
Further to the above, the speech quoted in the article was not given by Chief Seattle of the Suquamish, it was written by a white man in 1971 for a screenplay for a television series. For details see Eli Gifford, “The Many Speeches of Chief Seattle (Seathl): Manipulation of the Record on Behalf of Political, Religious and Environmental Causes,” 2015. It’s a beautiful speech but, unfortunately, not authentic.