The text of a Chinook Blessing delivered by Chinook Tribal Chief Gary Johnson in Chinook homelands, November 18, 2005. This blessing accompanies Maya Lin’s oyster shell walkway at Cape Disappointment state park.
We call upon the earth, our planet home,
with its beautiful depths and soaring heights,
its vitality and abundance of life,
and together we ask that it
Teach us, and show us the way.
We call upon the mountains,
Saddle Mountain and Wahkiakum Mountain,
the Willapa Hills, the summits of intense silence,
and we ask that they
Teach us, and show us the way.
We call upon the waters that rim the earth,
the waters of our great river the Iyagatthl Imathl,
the waters of Willapa Bay, and all of the waters,
the flowing of our rivers and streams,
the water that falls upon us,
and we ask that they
Teach us, and show us the way.
We call upon the land which grows our food,
the nurturing soil that sustains our lives,
and we ask that it
Teach us, and show us the way.
We call upon the forests, the great cedar trees
reaching strongly to the sky, with earth in their roots
and the heavens in their branches,
cedar tree, the keeper of all knowledge,
and we ask them to
Teach us, and show us the way.
We call upon the creatures of the fields and
forests and the seas, our brothers and sisters,
Lilu the Wolf, Mulak the Elk, and Mawich the Deer,
Ch’akch’ak the Eagle, the great Whales
and the Sturgeon, and the Salmon people
who share our Chinook waters,
and we ask that they
Teach us, and show us the way.
We call upon all those who have lived on this earth,
our ancestors and our friends,
who dreamed the best for future generations,
and upon whose lives our lives are built,
and with thanksgiving, we call upon them to
Teach us, and show us the way.
And lastly, we call upon all that we hold most sacred,
the presence and power of the Great Spirit
which flows through all the Universe,
to be with us to
Teach us, and show us the way.