All paths lead to Duwamish
by Heather Blakey 2005
Have you ever been to a place called Duwamish Bay? I’ve come by Ship and Ferry, on foot and horseback. I go back over and over again because of these words. I hope they inspire you as they have inspired me
From Chief Seattle’s Speech:
The young men, the mothers, and girls, the little children who once lived and were happy here, still love these lonely places. And at evening the forests are dark with the presence of the dead. When the last red man has vanished from this earth, and his memory is only a story among the whites, these shores will still swarm with the invisible dead of my people. And when you children’s children think they are alone in the fields, the forests, the shops, the highways, or the quiet of the woods, they will not be alone. There is no place in this country where a man can be alone. At night when the streets of your towns and cities are quiet, and you think they are empty, they will throng with the returning spirits that once thronged them, and that still love these places.
The white man will never be alone.
So let him be just and deal kindly with my people.
The dead have power too.
Duwamish Bay Calls to me now…will you join me? It maybe the journey of a life time…
Make a post about arriving at Duwamish. Don’t be restricted by form. I drew the whole narrative the first time around and do not plan to change my genre any time soon. Of course, a whim may take me and I might begin writing poems.
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