Paul Harrison’s Elements of Pantheism observes January 22nd as the day Chief Seattle (Si’ahl) surrendered native land.  This tragic memorial gains poignancy from the bittersweet speech delivered by the chief a year earlier.  Controversy rages over the authenticity of the speech and its translations, but it remains one of the most well-known and admired pleas for Native American rights and environmentalist values.

Harrison quotes Seattle:

“Every part of this soil is sacred in the estimation of my people.”

Read the multiple versions of the speech here.