Alleged prophecy of the Cree

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The prophecy of the Cree is wrongly described as a motto of the US American and West German environmental movement , which was intended to draw attention to the environmental problem . It found widespread use in the 1980s , e.g. B. as a sticker and through the song Rauchzeichen . The most common text version is:

"Only after the last tree has been cut down / Only after the last river has been poisoned / Only after the last fish has been caught / Then will you find that money cannot be eaten."

"Only when the last tree has been cleared, the last river poisoned, the last fish caught, you will notice that money cannot be eaten."

Origins

Whether the so-called prophecy of the Cree is of Indian origin is not yet clear. The quotation researcher Garson O'Toole found on his website Quote Investigator as the earliest written source to date, an interview with the future Canadian documentary filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin , which appeared in Canada in 1972. Obomsawin belongs to the Abenaki Indian people . The quotation researcher Norbert Rief cites the same source of the sentence to prove that it is not an old Indian tradition.

The motto shows parallels to the legend of the rainbow warriors . This comes from a speech that Chief Seattle of the Suquamish gave in 1854 to Isaac Ingalls Stevens , the governor of the Washington Territory . The American journalist Henry A. Smith, ear witness of the speech, recited the sentence from his memory in 1887, that is 33 years later, in the newspaper "Seattle Sunday" as follows:

“And when the last red man has disappeared from the earth and the memory of the white man has become a legend, then these shores will be overflowing with the invisible dead of my tribe ... then they are teeming with the returning multitudes who once made this land populated and still love it. "

In 1972 the American literary historian and film director Ted Perry changed the optimistic sense of these sentences. He spread: “If the last red man is gone with his wilderness and the memory of him is only the shadow of a cloud moving across the prairie, will these coastlines and forests still be there? Will anything be left of the spirit of my people? ” A version that should support its ecological message.

The first part of the slogan, which refers to trees, rivers and fish, is contained in another version of the legend of the rainbow warriors. This was first published in 1962 by the American geographers William Willoya and Vinson Brown as a prophecy of the Hopi . A version of the legend handed down by Lelanie Stone is said to come from an old Cree . This possibly Indian original, like the prophecy of Chief Seattle, does not end with a reminder of the people's greed or belief in money, but with the appearance of an army of rainbow warriors .

distribution

“Money is not edible”, final demonstration of the International Degrowth Conference 2014 , Leipzig

In November 1972, Thomas Parker aka Sakokwenonkwas, a Mohawk spokesman , used the picture of the last tree and fish and money in a Harvard University speech addressed to President Richard Nixon .

In 1979 the bands Ape, Beck & Brinkmann and Cochise released the song Rauchzeichen, whose lyrics, written by Fred Ape, are based on the prophecy. The song reached a circulation of over 100,000 copies and was also printed in school books.

In 1981, two Greenpeace activists climbed the chimney of a coal-fired power plant to protest against the emission of sulfur dioxide in the flue gases and unrolled an extremely long banner quoting the motto.

The Kelly Family processed the lyrics in 1993 in their hit "When The Last Tree".

The slogan was displayed on stickers, posters and T-shirts, among other things, and was also distributed by Greenpeace , among others . It was often framed with a colorful, "Indian" looking graphic based on a totem . In the meantime it has developed into a well-known meme and is also being distributed in many modified, sometimes satirical, versions.

Web links

Wikisource: Chief Seattle's Speech  - Sources and full texts (English)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Conversations with North American Indians. According to Quota Investigator.
  2. ↑ Norbert Rief: Fake quotes: I never said that! In: The press. "Die Presse" Verlags-Gesellschaft mbH Co KG, October 3, 2015, accessed on August 2, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Jens J. Korff: The stupidest sayings from politics, culture and business - and how they contradict them. Westend, Frankfurt / M. 2011
  4. ↑ a b Quote Investigator: When the Last Tree is Cut Down ... Retrieved September 12, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Golyr: Smoke Signals - Cochise. Retrieved December 26, 2015 .
  6. ↑ Deutschlandfunk-Nacht-Radio, August 29, 2012. Retrieved March 13, 2013.
  7. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5YV9imo9dg Kelly Family - "When The Last Tree"
  8. ↑ Prophecy of the Cree (sticker). Retrieved March 13, 2013.
  9. ↑ Prophecy of the Ministry of Satire. Retrieved March 13, 2013.
  10. ↑ Another sticker for the car. ( Memento from February 19, 2016 in the web archive archive.today ). From Extra 3 , accessed February 16, 2016.
  11. ↑ Prophecy of the Cree 2.0. October 26, 2014, accessed October 1, 2019 .