Newsflash⚡ directly copies the world’s top headlines and imagines the stories behind them.
This story examines indigenous perspectives towards the natural world, and the ways in which science is beginning to incorporate them.
You see, the main thing you must understand is, these things will look after themselves.
I do not know your people too well, but to me it becomes clear, like water at the edge of a stream. There is no way out from this fact. Really - you must understand - these things will look after themselves.
Allow me to explain.
One day the eagle flew down from the skies. It had been a hot season, a very hot season, so the feathers on his back had become dry, and his children in the mountains were hungry. He flew down to the water’s edge, and asked the fish one question:
“Why is it? Why is it that we must be thirsty, when you are born to live in the water, never needing so much as a drink?”
The fish looked at him in startled surprise; it was not often an eagle came for conversation. They gathered nervously, and the leader of the fish said:
“But sir, we are most thirsty. This year we have barely survived. Yes, perhaps we do not need to drink, but you must understand, with vision so sharp as yours, that we are just as reliant on the water as you. The water is our home. We may have no need to drink. But we most certainly have a need to live. And this year, there has been no water.”
The eagle looked at this fish; plump and juicy. A fish that shone in his wetness. And he replied:
“But things cannot be that bad. I myself was bathing here in the spring; I bathed with no remorse. I must have encountered several salmon, each of them fat ones, and full of health…”
The fish remained silent, and flicked their tails in a careless way.
“There was nothing that seemed to be wrong. I even saw that plump creature, the bear… and all of us came, and all of us were happy. You mean to tell me now, despite the health that you speak from, that you, too, are in need of more water?”
“I do not know,” said the leader of the fish, “whether we are in need of more water. There are certain things we may never receive. Who here would know where the water comes from? We only have had not enough space; that is to say, there have been many, many salmon this year, and the water has not given room for us all. We have even begun - in great dismay - to fight amongst ourselves.”
The eagle looked puzzled, lost in thought. The fish paddled fatly in the pools.
“And so…” the bird asked, “you are too many?”
“Yes, yes…” the sombre fish continued. “We have become too many, with too little. And we do not know when the water will come.”
With this, the eagle took a final look at his speaker and, with a quick snap of his wings, swiped him from the water! So it began that eagles would come each year to eat the salmon, and the children were seen to, and the water was plentiful. The fish swam brilliantly in the stream and the birds came to pluck out their duties. The ancient pact between the birds and the water began here, in a time of great need and agreement. And it has been that way ever since.
That is why I remind you. The main thing you must understand is - you really must understand - these things will look after themselves.
read the original story (BBC Future):
Why grazing bison could be good for the planet - BBC Future
The views expressed in this publication do not reflect the views of the author. The stories themselves are based on imagined events. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is fictitious and should not be taken as representative.
Will look after themselves if left well alone. Bit late for that tho'
A few months ago I saw people writing and talking about them going to cull 200,000 cows in Ireland because the farts from them was destroying the world. Not sure why but I decided to read into the North American bison picture and found out that the settlers slaughtered say 40 million bison in the 1800s!? Now the bison farts never destroyed the world but people nearly destroyed the bison! Was it to control the natives?