I. MOTHER EARTH 



"Brother, listen to what we say. There was a time when our forefathers 

 owned this great land. Their seats extended from the rising to the setting 

 sun. The Great Spirit had made it for the use of the Indians. He had 

 created the buffalo and the deer and other animals for food. He had made 

 the bear and the beiver. Their skins served us for clothing. He had 

 scattered them over the country and had taught us how to take them. He 

 had caused the earth to produce corn for bread. All this he had done for 

 his red children because he loved them." 



F-om the great oration of "Red Jacket," the Seneca Indian, on The Religion of 

 the White Man and the Red. 



If you ever read the letters of the pioneers who first settled 

 in your locality when it was all a wilderness (and how recent 

 was the time !), you will find them filled with discussion of the 

 possibilities of getting a living and establishing a home there. 

 Were there springs of good water there? Was there native 

 pasturage for the animals? Was there fruit? Was there 

 fish? Was there game? Was there timber of good quality 

 for building? Was the soil fertile? Was the climate health- 

 ful? Was the outlook good? Has it ever occurred to you 

 how, in absence of real-estate and immigration agencies, they 

 found out about all these things ? 



They sought this information at its source. They followed 

 up the streams. They foraged: they fished: they hunted. 

 They measured the boles of the trees with eyes experienced in 

 woodcraft. They judged of what nature would do with their 

 sowings by what they saw her doing with her own native 

 crops. And having found a sheltered place with a pleasant 

 outlook and with springs and grass and forage near at hand, 

 they built a dwelling and planted a garden. Thus, a new era 

 of agriculture was ushered in. 



Your ancestors were white men who came from another 

 continent and brought with them tools and products and 

 traditions of another civilization. Their tools, though 

 simple, were efficient. Their axes and spades and needles 



9 



