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  Quotes by Seattle, Chief




Chief Seattle (also Sealth, Seathl or See-ahth) (c.1786 June 7, 1866) of the Suquamish and Duwamish Native American tribes in what is now the U.S. state of Washington. A prominent figure among his people, he became a convert to Roman Catholicism and pursued a path of accommodation to white settlers, and formed a personal relationship with David Swinson "Doc" Maynard, at whose suggestion Seattle, Washington was named after him..

"The white man's dead forget the country of their birth when they go to walk among the stars. Our dead never forget this beautiful earth, for it is the mother of the red man."

Seattle, Chief on death    Share

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"We know that the white man does not understand our ways. One portion of 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."

Seattle, Chief on america    Share

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"What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man. All things are connected."

Seattle, Chief on animals    Share

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"Take only memories, leave nothing but footprints."

Seattle, Chief on memory    Share

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"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? Every part of the earth is sacred to my people."

Seattle, Chief on property    Share

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"Whatever befalls the earth befalls the son of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself."

Seattle, Chief on spirituality    Share

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"You must teach your 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."

Seattle, Chief on world    Share

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"There is no quiet place in the white man's cities. No place to hear the unfurling of leaves in spring, or the rustle of an insect's wings. But perhaps it is because I am a savage and do not understand. The clatter only seems to insult the ears."

Seattle, Chief on life    Share

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