FREEING THE RIVER

摘要

IN THE CHILL OF A LATE SUMMER MORNING, Jan Paul leans over the gunwale of a small boat and submerges a plastic jar into Maine's Penobscot River. In the stern, Dan Kusnierz drops a gauge over the side. The two water-resource technicians, who work for the Penobscot Indian Nation, are reading the river's vital signs, gathering data to record its temperature, pollution levels and clarity. Their efforts are part of an environmental and cultural restoration along the river, where the Penobscot people havelived for thousands of years. The river was once the tribe's medicine cabinet, its water supply, highway and supermarket. Despite a century of changes, the tribe hopes to revive the river's central role in its life again. "The river is the lifeblood of the Penobscot nation," says tribal elder Butch Phillips. "We are a river people."