AUTHENTIC TEXT
OF CHIEF SEATTLE'S TREATY ORATION 1854
涵義與翻譯
以上版本摘錄：
A few more moons, a few more winters, and not one of the descendants of the mighty hosts that once moved over this broad land or lived in happy homes, protected by the Great Spirit, will remain to mourn over the graves of a people once more powerful and hopeful than yours. But why should I mourn at the untimely fate of my people? Tribe follows tribe, and nation follows nation, like the waves of the sea. It is the order of nature, and regret is useless.
Your time of decay may be distant, but it will surely come, for even the White Man whose God walked and talked with him as friend to friend, cannot be exempt from the common destiny. We may be brothers after all. We will see.
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 a change of worlds.
衍生的西雅圖酋長環保宣言
以上環保版本摘錄：
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. Whatever befalls the Earth – befalls the
sons of the 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. Even the white man, whose
God walks and talks with him as friend to friend, cannot be exempt from the
common destiny. We may be brothers after all. We shall see. One thing we know,
which the white man may one day discover – Our God is the same
God.
