Product Description

Nearly 150 years ago, Chief Seattle, a respected and peaceful leader ofone of the Northwest Indian Nations, delivered a message to thegovernment in Washington who wanted to buy his people's land. Hebelieved that all life on earth, and the earth itself, is sacred.A moving and compelling plea for an end to man's destruction of nature.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #183988 in Books
• Published on: 1993-11-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 32 pages

Customer Reviews

A beautiul and thought-provoking book for all ages
I bought this book for my young and spiritually aware 4 year old thinking that I would read it with her when she is a little older. The illustrations are delightful and the text is so easy to understand that I've been reading it to her now. This is a special book with a vital message to us all. The sooner our children understand the message it carries, the better chance they have of improving our world. He says "The earth does not belong to us. We belong to the earth." I still have a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye when I read it. If you can't buy it for a child, buy it for yourself - it's beautiful.

A beautiful teaching resource
I used this book recently with a year three class. It followed an in-school drama performance of a story relating to Irish migration, and the subsequent frontier movement of the pioneers. The children were totally fascinated by the story and were able to take on board the fact, that; although based on truth and actual events, the words said to be spoken by Chief Seattle are open to question.
The paintings are beautiful, as is the poetic language. I intend to use this text again. It has potential across the curriculum, providing excellent Literacy opportunities as well as starting points for other areas such as; PSHE, Geography, History, RE, Music and Art.
This is a valuable resource. It is unfortunate that we will never know an 'absolute' version of Chief Seattle's speech but, Jeffers' simple interpretation makes his intention widely accessible, and can only serve to invoke greater interest in the tragedy of the Northwest Indian tribes.

Beautiful book but be aware of the problems.
Without doubt this is a beautifully produced book and is ideal in terms of consciousness-raising. So, on face-value terms, a valuable addition to a child's library. However there is controversy surrounding what Seattle actually said, indeed some of the content is anachronistic. Two problems need to be considered. Firstly, Native American speeches were written down via mediators who often added to the content, or sometimes simply mis-translated. The second problem is that supposed Native American wisdom has been appropriated by white people for a number of reasons over the past four centuries, ost recently by people interested in Green issues. I do not argue that we can learn from different cultures' attitudes to the environment, including those of Native America. What we must do is to grant peoples a right to a history of their own,in which we value accuracy and not merely use them as cultural icons.