Introduction
The Penobscot River in eastern Maine is vital to the Penobscot Nation’s identity. They depend on it to support their fishing economy as well as their spiritual connection to the land and to each other. Since the arrival of colonial settlers in the 17th century, the river has been contaminated by pollutants and impeded by dams. As the industrialization of the Penobscot River and surrounding area has accumulated sewage and pollutants in the river, and as dams have altered its flow and temperature, the People feel unable to fulfill their spiritual and subsistence relationship with the river.
The Penobscot Indian Nation (PIN) has worked persistently to gain the right to regulate the river and have free and fair access to its resources. Today, conservationist groups and other supporters are working with the PIN to return the river to its natural state to allow the Penobscot People to reconnect with their ancestral identity.
The Penobscots are part of the Wabanaki Confederacy of the Northeastern Woodland Tribes, along with the Abenaki, Passamaquaddy, Maliseet, and Mik Maq Nations. They are indigenous to the Penobscot watershed, or Maritime Canada and Maine. For thousands of years, the river has been essential to the identity of this community. Their ancestors have sustained themselves from the river by using its water and hunting the many fish that live in this river. However, for the past two hundred years or so, they have been disconnected from their ancestral culture because the river has become polluted and they have been denied jurisdiction over the region. This is the story of the Penobscot River.
