“Love the land as those before you loved it..” chief Seattle-1854
R-lee is astride the horse on the right with his cousin, Duane,(deceased) and Dan is on the horse with his cousin,Roger, in a 1963 photo on my sister, Opal and Elmer’s half section farm adjacent to the Iowa border and three miles east of the South Dakota border but in the land of 10,000 lakes, Minnesota.
Duane Nelson served in the army in Germany and then farmed the home place until his death.
Roger became a DVM and is retired from a pet hospital in Mankato,Minn that he owned.
The theme for this series is from Chief Seattles speach that he gave when he surrendered most of Washingtonstate to the US in 1854.
His admonition-
“Every part of the earth is sacred-every single pine leaf-every shore-every mist in the dark words-every clearing-every mist in the dark woods-every humming insect is holy in the memory of our people. You did not weave the web of life-your are merely a strand in it-whatever you do to the web you do to yourself-
You may think you own the land-you do not-it is God’s! to harm the land is to heap contempt upon its Creator. love the land as those who came before you loved-care for it as they cared for it-take the land as it is when you receive it-and with all your heart, with all your soul preserve it for your children-and love it-as God loves us all.”
This, then, is R-lee’s saga