The ground, water and grass say, 'The Great Spirit has given us our names. We have these names and hold these names. This is more than just quaint language of an uneducated Indian. Young Chief's questions are probing at a deep philosophical level. It did not seem silly to Chief Justice William Douglas, Washington native son and graduate of Whitman College in Walla Walla.
Inanimate objects are sometimes parties in litigation.
A ship has a legal personality, a fiction found useful by maritime purpose. So it should be as respects valleys, alpine meadows, rivers, lakes, estuaries, beaches, ridges, groves of trees, swampland or even air that feels the destructive pressures of modern technology and modern life. Young Chief and Chief Douglas appear to share the same world view. It is a shame that both of them lost their cases. The voices representing special interests, spoke loud and strong at the Chamber meeting.