must everything we touch ~ turn to ruin

“The white people never cared for land or deer or bear. When we Indians kill meat, we eat it all up. When we dig roots we make little holes. When we build houses, we make little holes. When we burn grass for grasshoppers, we don’t ruin things. We shake down acorns and pinenuts, we don’t chop down the trees. But the white people plow up the ground, pull down trees, kill everything…. How can the spirit of the Earth like the white man? Everywhere the white man has touched it, it is sore.”
~a woman of the Wintu tribe, 1876