Song Lyrics

Anything we should know about your change?
How can you buy or sell the sky
Or the warmth of the land it's strange to us
We don't own the freshness of the air
Or the sparkle of the water
How can you buy them from us
The white man doesn't understand our ways
For he's a stranger who comes in the night
And takes from the land just what he needs

Oh yeah

He treats his brothers like his enemies
When it's completed he moves on
He leaves his father's grave and his birthright
His birthright is forgotten
The air is precious to the red man
For all things share the same breath
The white man won't notice the air he breathes
Like a man dying for many days

All right now

The whites must treat the beasts of his land
As his brothers not his enemies
Tell me what is man without the beasts
I'll bet he will die of loneliness

One thing we know that the white man will
We know our god is the same god
You may think you wish to own him
Own him as you wish to own our land
But he is the body of man
And the earth is precious to him
Continue to contaminate your bed
And you will suffocate in your waste

Chief Sealth