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Re: [at-l] Thoughts when hiking

>   "Every part of this earth is sacred to my people.  Every shining 
pine
>needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every 
clearing,
>and every humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my
>people.  The sap which courses through the trees carries memories of
>the red man.  So, when the Great Chief in Washington sends word that he
>wishes to buy our land, he asks much of us.
>    Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth.  Man did 
not
>weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it.  Whatever he does
>to the web, he does to himself."
>
> -Excerpt from the Letter of Chief Seathl of the Suwamish tribe to the
>  President of the United States of America, Franklin Pierce, 1854.

Actually, someone admitted to making this up for a book (can't remember 
who); Chief Seattle never wrote this.  I do have a wonderful song with 
this passage in it too.

>Does anyone else think about these things when they're "out there"?
>Who the indigenous people were, how they interacted with nature, what 
the
>land looked like before Columbus "discovered the Americas"?  Great 
stuff
>to contemplate around the campfire or in a shelter on a rainy night.
>This passage speaks to why I got started in backpacking, why the AT
>is so special, and why it and all wild places must be preserved.
>Food for thought next time you're out hiking...  (Climbing down off
>soap-box now...)

Yeah, I do -- I wonder what it must have been like to be the "first", or 
apparently first, people in an area, how wonderful and mystifying and 
scary and uplifting it would have been.  How the land would have seemed 
to continue forever...

>Also, with March and Springer fever almost upon us, I want to wish the
>best of luck to the Class of '98.  I hope you achieve all your goals
>and much more.  Go for Katahdin!

Ditto from here!

>http://eady.meas.ncsu.edu/decroix/backpacking/index.html

Beautiful photo, Dave...

Amy

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