5th Hour - Chief Seattle

**Admin** Sun Sep 18, 2011 9:13 am

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.

DanManzella Wed Sep 21, 2011 4:08 pm

What Chief Seattle has to say makes sense, even tho its a far outstretch of the way we live. Which makes his quote about the end of living and beginning of survival even that much more meaningful. Their concept of the trees being our lungs, air our breath, the rivers our circulation, etc makes since if you take a look at where they're coming from, but in our modern reality that's not how our world works anymore. We have became superficial.

As for this quote, "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 quote first of all because man had nothing to do with the food webs of life, we did not decide what eats what to survive. Secondly we are just a part of a drawn out food web, just because we are at the top of the food web doesn't make us any less of a part of it. Finally the part of what ever we do the web, we do to ourselves, is stating that some where down the line if we mess with one part of the web its gonna come back to get us in the end one way or another because like we learned in class when you mess with one level of the trophic levels it effects all the other levels.

BrittanyE Wed Sep 21, 2011 7:12 pm

When chief Seattle says "All things share the same breath - the beast, the tree, the man...
the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports." I agree. what he is saying is that in some way we all living or non-living in someway we are connected. all things share the same breath whether it be carbon dioxide or oxygen it is the same air being used. humans and animals use oxygen the trees and plants use carbon dioxide. we recycle the air we use but it is all the same.

BrittanyE Wed Sep 21, 2011 7:16 pm

DanManzella wrote:What Chief Seattle has to say makes sense, even tho its a far outstretch of the way we live. Which makes his quote about the end of living and beginning of survival even that much more meaningful. Their concept of the trees being our lungs, air our breath, the rivers our circulation, etc makes since if you take a look at where they're coming from, but in our modern reality that's not how our world works anymore. We have became superficial.

As for this quote, "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 quote first of all because man had nothing to do with the food webs of life, we did not decide what eats what to survive. Secondly we are just a part of a drawn out food web, just because we are at the top of the food web doesn't make us any less of a part of it. Finally the part of what ever we do the web, we do to ourselves, is stating that some where down the line if we mess with one part of the web its gonna come back to get us in the end one way or another because like we learned in class when you mess with one level of the trophic levels it effects all the other levels.
I agree with this 100%. we don't control what happens to different species. we are nothing but a component of the cycle.

ScubaSteve.Smith Wed Sep 21, 2011 8:15 pm

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.

Chief Seattle had a lot of meaningful things to say. Everything he had to say made since. In my opinion everything he was talking about reminded me of karma. "What goes around, comes back around" is a saying that i have always heard. This relates to what we talk about in class because whatever happens to any organism in the food web, affects all organisms in the food web.

KristinaRider Wed Sep 21, 2011 8:52 pm

Chief Seattle says "All things share the same breath-the beast, the tree, the man... the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports." To me this means that we should not pollute our planet because it will have a great affect on other things such as animals that live on Earth. We all share the Earth, therefore we should respect it. It kind of bothered me when the government was asking to buy the Indian's land. Indians have been mistreated ever since the first Europeans settled here. The Indians were here first and i think that we should respect that along with respecting the planet. Very Happy

KristinaRider Wed Sep 21, 2011 8:56 pm

ScubaSteve.Smith wrote: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.

Chief Seattle had a lot of meaningful things to say. Everything he had to say made since. In my opinion everything he was talking about reminded me of karma. "What goes around, comes back around" is a saying that i have always heard. This relates to what we talk about in class because whatever happens to any organism in the food web, affects all organisms in the food web.

I agree with the point you made about what happens to a organism in a food web will affect the rest. All of the global warming and polltion may have happened because earlier people (1800) didn't listen to the Indians at all, and basicly took over.

KristinaRider Wed Sep 21, 2011 8:57 pm

BrittanyE wrote:When chief Seattle says "All things share the same breath - the beast, the tree, the man...
the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports." I agree. what he is saying is that in some way we all living or non-living in someway we are connected. all things share the same breath whether it be carbon dioxide or oxygen it is the same air being used. humans and animals use oxygen the trees and plants use carbon dioxide. we recycle the air we use but it is all the same.

I agree with you. I think that we all should treat the Earth with respect, because this is our home.

Chopper789 Wed Sep 21, 2011 10:02 pm

This quote by Chief Seattle reflects upon how whatever humanity tries to control, the results and/or consequences can end up changing for the better or the worse. Humanity continues to view the positives to the point where they ignore the negatives and do not properly deal with them. So they simply accept the negatives and chose not to take action even tough they have the power to do so.

Chopper789 Wed Sep 21, 2011 10:07 pm

ScubaSteve.Smith wrote: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.

Chief Seattle had a lot of meaningful things to say. Everything he had to say made since. In my opinion everything he was talking about reminded me of karma. "What goes around, comes back around" is a saying that i have always heard. This relates to what we talk about in class because whatever happens to any organism in the food web, affects all organisms in the food web.

I couldn't agree more with Steve. Karma comes to bring whatever is given back to the giver. It is also responsible for humanity's consequences on its actions.

Chopper789 Wed Sep 21, 2011 10:08 pm

KristinaRider wrote:
BrittanyE wrote:When chief Seattle says "All things share the same breath - the beast, the tree, the man...
the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports." I agree. what he is saying is that in some way we all living or non-living in someway we are connected. all things share the same breath whether it be carbon dioxide or oxygen it is the same air being used. humans and animals use oxygen the trees and plants use carbon dioxide. we recycle the air we use but it is all the same.
I agree with you. I think that we all should treat the Earth with respect, because this is our home.

Not only must we protect our home, we must embrace the power we have and take action in order to set change for the greater good of Humanity itself.

maryamnewman Wed Sep 21, 2011 10:48 pm

"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", meaning that our lifestyles are nothing but a cycle. What you give is simply what you get. As it pertains to biology class we contribute to the destruction of our atmosphere, our precious resources, and even greater our own homes. This very idea IS taken for granted and not given enough light itself.

Reflecting back on history, which is what Deeprak Chopra seems to be referring to when he says that humanity is now fighting for survival rather than living, Indians utilized and cherished all aspects of their enviorments, and to see how their lands were invaded and destroyed for a more modern society pains them. To see their resoures gone to waste and treated like they had not been put on Earth for our use is offensive to them. He is implying that we are taking life away from ourselves and it will not be retrieved back, which in turn will be the death of us. The death of our enviorment (by us killing it) will be the death of us is his point.

I agree with a few of the points that he's made. Chopping down trees, using good soil to build businesses on top of, omitting pollutants into the atmosphere are just a few examples of how we take our world for granted. We're killing ourselves, but we are aware of the dangers we are causing and I belive that we wont remain like this for long

maryamnewman Wed Sep 21, 2011 10:51 pm

Chopper789 wrote:This quote by Chief Seattle reflects upon how whatever humanity tries to control, the results and/or consequences can end up changing for the better or the worse. Humanity continues to view the positives to the point where they ignore the negatives and do not properly deal with them. So they simply accept the negatives and chose not to take action even tough they have the power to do so.

Ive never thought of the idea this way but fully agree with the point that you are making. We are clearly trying to manipulate, rather than work with, the very world that was given

maryamnewman Wed Sep 21, 2011 10:54 pm

ScubaSteve.Smith wrote: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.

Chief Seattle had a lot of meaningful things to say. Everything he had to say made since. In my opinion everything he was talking about reminded me of karma. "What goes around, comes back around" is a saying that i have always heard. This relates to what we talk about in class because whatever happens to any organism in the food web, affects all organisms in the food web.

In other words, it is karma. Kind of like a backfire for trying to control what we cant

BriannaMoore Wed Sep 21, 2011 11:37 pm

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.
For the past couple of weeks we have discussed that everything we do whether its directly or indirectly it effects us all. If we do not make a change or at least try to solve any new issues that arise in our environment we will regret it later.Our lives are not determined by what happens to us, but by how we react to what happens.
Not by what life brings to us, but by the attitude we bring to life. A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events and outcomes. flower

serenasomerville Thu Sep 22, 2011 12:15 pm

when cheif seattle says"All things share the same breath - the beast, the tree, the man... the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports". i totally agree. the cheif is tryin g to say that we all non-living and living things share the same air that has been in the air since the earth was first made. from the past to the future we all will be breathing the same air. we are much diffrent we are all the same,

serenasomerville Thu Sep 22, 2011 12:16 pm

BrittanyE wrote:When chief Seattle says "All things share the same breath - the beast, the tree, the man...
the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports." I agree. what he is saying is that in some way we all living or non-living in someway we are connected. all things share the same breath whether it be carbon dioxide or oxygen it is the same air being used. humans and animals use oxygen the trees and plants use carbon dioxide. we recycle the air we use but it is all the same.

i agree. we may all have different faces and personalities but there isnt much difference.

serenasomerville Thu Sep 22, 2011 12:19 pm

Chopper789 wrote:This quote by Chief Seattle reflects upon how whatever humanity tries to control, the results and/or consequences can end up changing for the better or the worse. Humanity continues to view the positives to the point where they ignore the negatives and do not properly deal with them. So they simply accept the negatives and chose not to take action even tough they have the power to do so.

that is true but do you think that humanity is veiwing the positive points and not the negatives because they dont want to face reality... maybe its to harsh for them to accept

Zach Huhmann Thu Sep 22, 2011 4:10 pm

i agree with Chief Seattle saying, "we are apart of the earth and it's apart of us" because what we are doing to the earth is slowly not if it is a ready happening to us. we are polluting most if not all of the plant and ever so slowly those actions are polluting ourselves. i also agree with what he said about, "human kind has not woven the web of life. we are but one thread with in it. whatever we do to to the web we do to ourselves" him saying that is what we would say now is that we are killing ourselves. what he said is coming back to get us, like karma.

Zach Huhmann Thu Sep 22, 2011 4:17 pm

BriannaMoore wrote: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.
For the past couple of weeks we have discussed that everything we do whether its directly or indirectly it effects us all. If we do not make a change or at least try to solve any new issues that arise in our environment we will regret it later.Our lives are not determined by what happens to us, but by how we react to what happens.
Not by what life brings to us, but by the attitude we bring to life. A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events and outcomes.

i agree with Brianna about "our lives are not determined by what happens to us, but by how we react to what happens" we should react better on things than in the way we do now.

Zach Huhmann Thu Sep 22, 2011 4:20 pm

ScubaSteve.Smith wrote: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.

Chief Seattle had a lot of meaningful things to say. Everything he had to say made since. In my opinion everything he was talking about reminded me of karma. "What goes around, comes back around" is a saying that i have always heard. This relates to what we talk about in class because whatever happens to any organism in the food web, affects all organisms in the food web.

Karma does what Karma wants. We are getting kicked back for what we are doing to the environment.

chrisprincivalli Thu Sep 22, 2011 7:40 pm

I totally agree with chief seatle its true man is part of the web of life. Anything we do will effect somthing around us.Another thing is how can we buy the land or sky? it isnt ours what makes my street the government's property.... Absolutely nothing! It belongs to everyone including the plants and animals that inhabbit it. Its a truely sacred place considering it keeps us living everyday. Man is part of the web of life wether we like it or not. Its our job to help the earth before we cant fix it.

lindsay-moody Thu Sep 22, 2011 8:36 pm

I think a lot of people hardly realize that they are not the most important thing and that the world does not revolve around them. when Chief Seattle said "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," he couldn't have been more correct. We aren't the most important thing, but anything we do can either positively or negatively impact the world. and mostly... the negative things we do tend to come back and bite us in the butt. What a Face

Arock iHurdle Thu Sep 22, 2011 8:54 pm

After watching the brief video about Chief Seattle and his plea for his people and mankind as a whole, I totally agree with his argument. He says "All things share the same breath ... with all the life it supports" and this quote really makes a statement. Metaphorically this is true because even though we are all different we still inhabit the same worl and if we are going to go on with stability and flourish as a species (Homo-Sapien-Sapien), then we need to treat each other as equals.

Arock iHurdle Thu Sep 22, 2011 9:01 pm

DanManzella wrote:What Chief Seattle has to say makes sense, even tho its a far outstretch of the way we live. Which makes his quote about the end of living and beginning of survival even that much more meaningful. Their concept of the trees being our lungs, air our breath, the rivers our circulation, etc makes since if you take a look at where they're coming from, but in our modern reality that's not how our world works anymore. We have became superficial.

As for this quote, "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 quote first of all because man had nothing to do with the food webs of life, we did not decide what eats what to survive. Secondly we are just a part of a drawn out food web, just because we are at the top of the food web doesn't make us any less of a part of it. Finally the part of what ever we do the web, we do to ourselves, is stating that some where down the line if we mess with one part of the web its gonna come back to get us in the end one way or another because like we learned in class when you mess with one level of the trophic levels it effects all the other levels.

I agree with you Dan. If one part of an ecosystem falls out of place, then the rest of it could crumble also. If we all just play a positive role in our ecosystem, then everything will stay in balance. Great point! Cool

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