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Quotes

24-07-19

Chief Seattle: We belong to the Earth

The earth does not belong to us,
we belong to the earth.

Chief Seattle

Chief Seattle (c. 1786 – June 7, 1866) was a Suquamish Tribe (Suquamish) and Dkhw'Duw'Absh (Duwamish) chief.[2] A prominent figure among his people, he pursued a path of accommodation to white settlers, forming a personal relationship with "Doc" Maynard. The city of Seattle, in the U.S. state of Washington, was named after him. A widely publicized speech arguing in favor of ecological responsibility and respect of Native Americans' land rights had been attributed to him. However, what he actually said has been lost through translation and rewriting.

The name Seattle is an anglicization of the modern Duwamish conventional spelling Si'ahl, equivalent to the modern Lushootseed spelling siʔaɫ IPA: [ˈsiʔaːɬ]. He is also known as Sealth, Seathle, Seathl, or See-ahth.