3rd Hour - Chief Seattle

Watch the 4 minute video located at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VB8mvRB9d8. The video describes a powerful letter about the Native American perspective on ownership of our Earth. Chief Seattle of the Duwamish Tribe wrote the following letter to President Pierce after the US Government offered to buy the land where his people lived in 1854 (current day Washington State).

Reflect on the video and select one of the quotations from Chief Seattle listed below. Relate your quotation to the topics covered in class during this past unit and/or this week. In addition to your posted reflection, respond to the postings of TWO of your classmates.

All things share the same breath - the beast, the tree, the man...
the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports.

Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together.
All things connect.

Man does not weave this web of life. He is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does
to the web, he does to himself.


Initial Posting: Due Thursday, September 22 at 11:59 pm
Response Postings: Due Sunday, September 25 at 11:59 pm.

-Man does not weave this web of life. He is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does
to the web, he does to himself.

First off, i think this was a great video.
Anyway, I agree with this quote and i think it relates to what we've been discussing in class the most. The guy is right, Humans do not weave the web of life, nature has done that for us. Mankind is just on top of the food web, and i think with great power comes great responsibility. If man over destroys areas such as greenland, than animals will be affected. And as we learned in class, even if you take out one thing in the food web that doesn't really seem to matter, everything will be distrupted, even the top of the food chain. So basically, if we destroy or change something nature has made for us, then we will be affected the same way later on.

I find the words of Chief Seattle to be totally true despite the fact that he lived in a totally different culture, socionomic, and economic region with limited experience in industrialized cities or knowledge of the possible near future. Chief Seattle and the Duwamish Tribe maintained a steady, healthy lifestyle in a perfect environment because they respected and took care of it.Today, Chief Seattle would be disgusted with the way things are compared to his lifestyle. In modern times, instead of just densely populated cities with concentrated population and few industrialized countries, there are densely populated autonomous cities(Los Angeles) with pollation that spreads for miles around the cities carried by the jet stream to other continents. There are global sewage problems, chemicals and pollutants in wetlands, rivers can't carry sediment to deltas and fertilize land because of people settling on 'flood plains permanently', corrupt government policy, CFC's, CO2, methane, and other global air pollutants that cause diseases like cancer and whatever Ultimately we are currently destroying ourselves because of un-ecofriendly or 'unnecessary' and corrupt development(suburbs, the relocation of manufacturing, not restoring historic buildings, highways that do not serve the city but destroy it-"rust belt") I could go on more but I think you guys get the point, something needs to change or like the guy said, we'll be extinct, probably within the next 100-200 years because of our own doing.

I like the quote about the fact that humankinds actions definitely affect the Earth and itself. I remeber talking about the unit on Global Warming and how it really affects the Earth. I really don't like the fact that humankind has done so much damage to the Earth, but then again I can't imagine life any other way. To me it seems that there are definitely consequences to our action, for instince natural disasters. I know that things like tornadoes, and earthquakes are beyond our control, but if a hurricane hit I think it does more damage now than say before the Industrial Revolution because of the fact that there is nothing to stand up against the hurricane. I completely agreed with the statement about humankind affecting the Earth, which intern affects itself.

camenistic strickland wrote:I find the words of Chief Seattle to be totally true despite the fact that he lived in a totally different culture, socionomic, and economic region with limited experience in industrialized cities or knowledge of the possible near future. Chief Seattle and the Duwamish Tribe maintained a steady, healthy lifestyle in a perfect environment because they respected and took care of it.Today, Chief Seattle would be disgusted with the way things are compared to his lifestyle. In modern times, instead of just densely populated cities with concentrated population and few industrialized countries, there are densely populated autonomous cities(Los Angeles) with pollation that spreads for miles around the cities carried by the jet stream to other continents. There are global sewage problems, chemicals and pollutants in wetlands, rivers can't carry sediment to deltas and fertilize land because of people settling on 'flood plains permanently', corrupt government policy, CFC's, CO2, methane, and other global air pollutants that cause diseases like cancer and whatever Ultimately we are currently destroying ourselves because of un-ecofriendly or 'unnecessary' and corrupt development(suburbs, the relocation of manufacturing, not restoring historic buildings, highways that do not serve the city but destroy it-"rust belt") I could go on more but I think you guys get the point, something needs to change or like the guy said, we'll be extinct, probably within the next 100-200 years because of our own doing.

I COMLETELY AGREE!...Most of this will be gone by the next century.

Lara Hamdan wrote:-Man does not weave this web of life. He is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does
to the web, he does to himself.

First off, i think this was a great video.
Anyway, I agree with this quote and i think it relates to what we've been discussing in class the most. The guy is right, Humans do not weave the web of life, nature has done that for us. Mankind is just on top of the food web, and i think with great power comes great responsibility. If man over destroys areas such as greenland, than animals will be affected. And as we learned in class, even if you take out one thing in the food web that doesn't really seem to matter, everything will be distrupted, even the top of the food chain. So basically, if we destroy or change something nature has made for us, then we will be affected the same way later on.

Mankind really needs to take on more of the responsibility you mentioned, but I dont think that will happen for another few decades, unfortunately.

All things share the same breath - the beast, the tree, the man...
the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports.

This quote made me realize every single thing that mrs.Hancock has taught us in class. It kind of changed my mind of how I feel about the world. We do all share the same things in life life and air. Everthing is connected in some kind of way. So we should take care of it as he says and keep it how it is. Mrs. Hancock always said there was a connection between all living things. She also said there is a delicate balance. This video basically says everything she has since the first da of school. Oh this is BriJoe

Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together.
All things connect.

If more people thought how Chief Seattle and other Native Americans did then we wouldn't have as many problems in the environments on Earth today and I find this quote very true. Human beings don't create the life of all livings things on Earth but are only a part of it, and even just being one part the actions we take affect all other threads in the web of life. Like in the food webs we discussed in class, taking out or adding another organism impacts the organisms and their flow and sources of energy and population. Many humans don't think of the cause and effects to Earth when it's important to since we live on it, and we have to take care of it if we want to keep living and be healthy. For example we have discussed global warming in class but many people pollute and there's the great pacific garbage patch and people aren't taking care of our oceans and protecting our mother earth from harm.

[quote="Lara Hamdan"]
I agree with that quote to and it relates to what we've been discussing in class but I also think all of them do and sort of say the same thing. We'll be affected the same way later on.. so you're saying we'll become extinct from other things on earth not caring about us?

[quote="Jonesayy"]If it changed your mind about how you feel about the world, are you gonna do anything to change your ways? i don't remember her saying all those things since the first day but she probably has, and it's true that all living things are connected somehow. who invented this emoticon? lol its so random. reminds me of laney's class...

-Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.

I like this quote because, it's true. whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves because, just like in a food web, whatever one animal is affected by something, then that effects the WHOLE entire food web. It doesn't matter if the fox doesn't eat the snail, that's population is extinct, it still effects each animal in someway.

[quote="brianadreid16"] I agree because it does affect the earth.

[quote="Lara Hamdan"] I agree because, even if we change something now that doesn't seem like a big deal, it will affect something in the future.

"Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together.
All things connect. "
We always tend to think to act as if we're the center of everything living, but were not. Every component of any food web is important. Humans are a piece but not the whole,and we should treat other organisms similarly. If we continue to kill off species, in the long run that will affect us as well. All life affects, in some way, other life;everything is important and connected.

camenistic strickland wrote:

I agree with what you said. The Native Americans managed to survive without damaging the environment, so why can't we? We have way to many developments in technology to not have ways to avoid disrupting other organisms.

Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together.
All things connect.

This reflexes exactly what we have been learning. If man put a new animal where it is not suppose to be, then everything changes there. Also when ever man kills an animal to extinction, or close to it, then everything at that place will change. This has happened multiple times, only because man thinks that he can do whatever he wants with the animals because they are lower than him. They don't think about what will happen, they only think about what is happening. That thought is almost always connected to money. That is what most people think about, money and only money. They don't care how or where they got it , they only care that they have a lot of it.

brianadreid16 wrote:.

I agree I think that humans caused alot of things to happen in the environment that other organisms don't. I also think that it is our responsibility to avoid these types of things from happening ,other animals can't. Humans are smarter compared to other organisms, so WE are responsible for fixing these types of problems.

"Man does not weave this web of life. He is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does
to the web, he does to himself."
I agree with the statement what ever we do to the web we do to ourself. If we pollute the earth we will see it effecting our lives. One way is through animals eating the pollution and when we eat the animals we gain their pollution and have problems. So, we need to find a way to take better care of earth by fixing such things as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Logan: This reflexes exactly what we have been learning. If man put a new animal where it is not suppose to be, then everything changes there. Also when ever man kills an animal to extinction, or close to it, then everything at that place will change. This has happened multiple times, only because man thinks that he can do whatever he wants with the animals because they are lower than him. They don't think about what will happen, they only think about what is happening. That thought is almost always connected to money. That is what most people think about, money and only money. They don't care how or where they got it , they only care that they have a lot of it.[/quote]
I totally understand that. What should we do to fix this before it becomes a problem we can't fix?

Lara Hamdan wrote:- So basically, if we destroy or change something nature has made for us, then we will be affected the same way later on.

Lara that is definitely concerning to think about. We could make life very hard on oursleves to the point where people might starve and eventually die. The question is how do we get the attention of everyone to wake them up about what they are doing before things get worse.

I agree with the whole web of life thing, but that guy can't tell me that my family doesn't own our land.

Lara Hamdan wrote:-Man does not weave this web of life. He is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does
to the web, he does to himself.

First off, i think this was a great video.
Anyway, I agree with this quote and i think it relates to what we've been discussing in class the most. The guy is right, Humans do not weave the web of life, nature has done that for us. Mankind is just on top of the food web, and i think with great power comes great responsibility. If man over destroys areas such as greenland, than animals will be affected. And as we learned in class, even if you take out one thing in the food web that doesn't really seem to matter, everything will be distrupted, even the top of the food chain. So basically, if we destroy or change something nature has made for us, then we will be affected the same way later on.

High Five Lara! I agree with you and the quote. Everything in the food web is effected by each other. So like you said, if we destroy the greenlands, in a sense we destroy the animals living their, and in the long run ourselves.

The video was actually somewhat interesting. chief Seattle was very spiritual and said things that made you think.

"Man does not weave this web of life. He is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself."

Man thinks that just because we are the smartest and most capable species that we should be able to do what ever fits our needs. Like building dams, deforestion, and how we deal with trash. Man should be looking at the long term effect on the things they do like the Great Pacific Garbage patch. After man does all the damage that effect others. In the end we aslo damage ourselves.

Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together.
All things connect.

A lot of people today would almost disagree with this quote. Many people are so interested in advancing in technology and having all these material things that they think will make them happy that they don't care what they have to do to get it. They don't care that they are polluting the air they breath, they don't care that they are cutting down all the forests, they don't care what animals they are hurting, or what habitats they're destroying. Chief Seattle was correct in saying that humans do not weave the web of life. No matter how great we think we are, we don't create nature. We are part of the world just like every other living thing and we shouldn't harm it, because eventually it will come back full circle and have a harmful effect on us.

"Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together.
All things connect."

This video was actually very good. . I chose this quote because of the fact that it is TRUE ! We need to take more care of the forest and the plants. Its only right. IF we don't have them there is no way for us to breath or LIVE! this quote relates to what we have been learning because it points out that deforestation is NOT a good thing and that we our hurting ourselves as well as the animals.