This Is Just A Test A Message To All Believers

These eloquent words are commonly attributed to Chief Seattle (an Anglicization of Si’ahl) in an 1854 speech to his tribe. He was chief of the Duwamish, the Native American Indian people of the western part of Washington State. It turns out that the words were actually penned in 1972 by screenwriter Ted Perry as a fictional account of Si’ahl’s speech, for a documentary about the environment. The words, nonetheless, describe the reciprocity with the natural world that man must respect and abide by. The native American Indians, like so many other cultures of the past, lived within parameters that sought not to exploit nature but to work with nature so that the give and take of sustainable existence is observed and fulfilled. As Francis Bacon, 17th century scientist said, “Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.”