A Letter from the Salmon Nation to Human Being
Our dear old friend,
How are you doing? We have been watching you for all these years and wonder how you have been and what you have been up to. We don’t know if many of you still remember us, we were there at your birth and assisted you during your development by giving you our voice with which to talk to the Creator and to each other, in a respectful, humble manner.
Those of you still observing the old ways may remember that we made each other a promise at that time. Do you recall what it was? We know some of you do and we appreciate the effort you have made to keep your word, but too many of you have, it saddens us to see, have forgotten. The agreement was: We would give you our voice and you would use that voice to speak for us. Now that we are facing the destruction of our people we must write to you asking that you honor your commitment and speak up for us before it is too late.
The rivers that we shared in your youth are no longer strong enough to support us both because, it appears, you have become greedy. You are taking the water and misusing it, you are being wasteful and, how did you ever become so dirty? Remember when you were young, you would come out in the mornings earliest light and bathe and talk with us, thanking the Creator for the day and for your relatives. Why have you stopped bathing in the rivers and streams and now use them as conduits to spread the filth you created out to the far reaches of the earth? Do you not realize that this is not how you were raised and taught from your earliest years?
We see too that you have developed in such a way that you must now dam those life giving waterways for your own use while subjecting your relatives from all other nations: the fish, plant people, the four legged and those that fly, to life without the ability to share the clear, cold water, that we need to survive. Do you not see that this is bad for all of us, yourselves included?
We have gathered together, in the small number that remains, and decided that we must now write to you as you no longer speak with us to ask that you stop what you are doing and consider what will happen to you if you persist in this self destructive manner you are carry out. Think about others before yourself, think of those yet to come and those who have come before and ask what you should do to change the direction of the fate you have condemned so many of us to.
We hope that you will wake up and see the good that was given you. Wake up and return, in any way you can, to the lifeway of those who came before. We do not expect you to throw away the society you created or the good things that you have done, but consider the rest of us when you over draft the water underground and pollute the waters on top and the big water of the oceans of this world we all share.
We pray that you will wake up in time before it is too late. We ask that you honor your agreement with us and use your voice to protect your relatives who gave so much to you. Do not forsake us so that only you remain. We carry very fond memories of your youth, we know that you have it in you to do what is right and just for your mother earth and stand ready to return in stronger and greater numbers to the rivers of our youths so we can once again swim with you and nourish you as we have before. In this way we hope that the earth will honor us all – when we honor each other.
Until we have the opportunity to speak again, we await your response,
Salmon Nation
