勇敢的呼声（1/1）

西雅图酋长谈话 The“Alteratent”of Chief Seattle

西雅图酋长 / Chief Seattle

西雅图酋长（1786—1866），杜瓦米许族印第安人，勇武且善于领导，以酋长身份统治德奥米什和苏卡米什等6个部落。西雅图早年受法国传教士的影响，信仰天主教。他的父亲与当地白人建立了友好关系，而他多年来一直维护着这种关系。1855年他与白人签订了《埃利澳特港条约》，并建立印第安人保留地，当时美国政府要将当地土人驱逐到“保留地”定居。本文就是西雅图在美国政府压力下所给予的答复。

Acethe Hole

Uand these new words before you read this article.

1.startle [stɑ:tl] v.使吓一跳；使惊奇

2.arrest [?rest] v.吸引

3.bud [b?d] n.芽，萌芽

Yonder sky that has wept tears of passion upon y people for turies untold, and which toappears geless aernal, ay ge.Today is fair.Toorrow it ay be overcast with clouds.My words are like the stars that never ge.Whatever Seattle says, the great chief at Washgtonrely upon with as uch certaty as heupourn of the sun or the seasons.

White Chief says that Big Chief at Washgton sendsgreetgs of friendship and goodwill.This is kd of hi for we know he has little need of our friendshipreturn.His people are any.They are like the grass that vers vast prairies.My people are few.They reseble the scatterg trees of a stor-swept p.The great, and I presu—good, White Chief sendsword that he wishes to buy our nds but is willg to allowenough to live fortably.This deed appears jt, even genero, for the Red Man no longer has rights that he needs respect, and the offer ay be wise also, as we are no longerneed of aery.

There was a ti when our people vered the nd as the waves of a d-ruffled sea ver its shell-paved floor, but that ti long sce passed away with the greatness of tribes that are now but a ournful ory.I will not dwell on, nor ourn over, our untily decay, nor reproach y paleface brothers with hasteng it, as we too ay have been sowhat to b.

Youth is ipulsive.When our young n grow angry at so real ary wrong, and disfigure their faces with bck pat, it dehat their hearts are bck, and that they are often cruel aless, and our old n and old won are uo restra the.Th it has ever been.Th it was when the White Man began to ph our forefathers ever wesard.But lethope that the hostilities beeenay never return.We would have everythg to lose and nothg to ga.Revenge by young n is nsidered ga, even at the st of their own lives, but old n who stay at hotis of war, and others who have sons to lose, know better.

ood fatherWashgton—for I presu he is now our father as well as yours, sce Kg Gee has oved his boundaries further north—reat andgood father, I say, sendsword that if we do as he desires he will protect .His brave warriors will be toa bristlg wall of strength, and his wonderful ships of war will fill our harbors, so that our a eneies far to the northward—the Haidas and Tsishians, will cease thten our won, children and old n.Hereality he will be our father and we will be his children.

Butthat ever be? Yod is not od! Yod loves your people and hates e! He folds his strong protectg ars lovgly about the palefad leads hi by the hand as a father leads an fant son.But, He has forsaken His Red children, if they really are His.

od, the Great Spirit, sees also to have forsaken .Yod akes your people wax stronger every day.Soon they will fill all the nd.Our people are ebbg away like a rapidly recedg tide that will never return.The White Man’s God ot love our people or He would protect the.They see to be orphans wholook nowhere for help.How thenwe be brothers? Howyod bee od and renew our prosperity and awakendreas of returng greatness?

If we have a on Heavenly Father, He t be partial, for He ca to His paleface children.We never saw Hi.He gave you ws but had no word for His Red children whose teeg ultitudes once filled this vastas stars fill the firant.No, we are o distct races with separate s and separate desties.There is littleon beeen .

Tothe ashes of our aors are sacred and their restg pce is hallowed ground.You wander far fro the graves of your aors and seegly withret.

Yion was written upon tablets of stone by the iron fger of yod so that you uld not fet.The Red Man uld never prehend or reber it.ion is the traditions of our aors—the dreas of our old n, given thesolen hours of the night by the Great Spirit; and the visions of our saches, and is writtenthe hearts of our people.

Your dead cease to love you and the nd of their nativity as soon as they pass the portals of the tob and wander away beyond the stars.They are soon fotten and never return.Our dead never fet this beautiful world that gave the beg.They still love its verdant valleys, its ururg rivers, its agnifit ountas, sequestered vales and verdant led kes and bays, and ever yearntender fond affe over the lonely hearted livg, and ofteurn fro the happy huntg ground to visit, guide, nsole and fort the…

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Our departed braves, fond d, happy hearted aidens, ale children who lived here and rejoiced here for a brief season, will love these sober solitudes and at evehey greet shadowy returng spirits.

And whe Red Man shall have perished, and the ory of y tribe shall have bee a yth aong the White Men, these shores will swar with the visible dead of y tribe, and when your children thk theselves alohe field, the store, the shop, upon the highway, orthe silence of the pathless woods, they will not be alone.In all the earth there is no pce dedicated to solitude.At night whereets of your cities and vilges are silent and you thk the deserted, they will throng with the returng hosts that once filled the and still love this beautiful nd.The White Man will never be alone.

Let hi be jt and deal kdly with y people, for the dead are not powerless.Dead, did I say? —There is h, only a ge of worlds.