A letter written in 1852 to President Fillmore from Chief Seattle

The President in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. But how can you buy or sell the sky? 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? [...] We know the sap which courses through the trees as we know the blood that courses through our veins.

We are part of the earth and it is part of us. 

The rivers are our brothers. They quench our thirst. They carry our canoes and feed our children. So you must give to the rivers the kindness you would give to any brother. 

If we sell you our land, remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports. The wind that gave our grandfather his first breathe also receives his last sigh. 

This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. 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. 

Your destiny is a mystery to us. What will happen when the secret corners of the forest are heavy with the scent of many men and the view of the ripe hills is blotted by talking wires? 

The end of living and the beginning of survival. 

We love this earth as a newborn loves its mother's heartbeat. So, if we sell you our land, love it as we have loved it. As we are part of the land, you too are part of the land. This earth is precious to us. No man, be he Red man or White man, can be apart. 

As quoted from Joseph Campbell in his book, "The Power of Myth" (1988)