Sunday, July 22, 2001 Kennebec Journal
Penobscots fight for their river
© 2001 Blethen Maine Newspapers
OLD TOWN — Growing up on Indian Island in Old Town, Barry Dana fished from the Penobscot River to help his mom put food on the table.
As one of four children supported by the wages his mother earned at an Old Town shoe factory, Dana knew the white and yellow perch he brought home were a real contribution.
But for Dana, 42, now chief of the Penobscot Nation, fishing and swimming in the Penobscot River were also part of his heritage.
For thousands of years, the Penobscot people have drawn their life from the river, fishing from it, swimming in it, using it as a highway, a source of medicinal plants, even drawing their tribal identity from it.
But pollution, particularly dioxin from paper plants has forced the tribe to distance itself from the waters which are a huge part of its cultural identity, said Dana.
Dana, who teaches traditional Wabanaki arts in Solon, said he himself was forced to move his school to the banks of the Kennebec River because of pollution.
He started his school on an island in the Penobscot River in 1990 but had to move it four years later when he realized pollution from a nearby paper mill was giving his students headaches and skin rashes.
Like others of his tribe, Dana said he had no choice but to cut his ties to a part of his heritage because of pollution.
For people who trace their connection to the Penobscot River back countless generations, it is a loss that is difficult to exaggerate.
Many young people have given up fishing and swimming. Dana said he no longer will collect some of the medicinal herbs — he learned about them from his grandmother — be-cause he fears there is dioxin in the river sediment
"Just knowing the possibilities, I am definitely going to decide my routine on those possibilities," Dana said.
After his election as chief last year, Dana has made improving the Penobscot's water quality a public tribal goal.
A modern tribal leader who wore a polo shirt and khaki shorts to a recent interview, Dana has proven himself adroit at forming partnerships and using the press to lobby for cleaner water.
As chief of the Penobscots, he is embroiled in a legal battle that pits the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy tribes against three paper companies over water quality in the Penobscot River.
It is an effort that involves a labyrinth of legal maneuverings and court decisions, but it boils down to a fight for traditional tribal values waged with modern weapons, according to Dana.
Last year, the Penobscot Nation and Passamaquoddy Tribe contested the state's application to the U.S. Government to issue federal wastewater-discharge permits.
Dana and the other tribe want the Federal Environmental Protection Agency to continue to issue wastewater-discharge permits for rivers in their territory, because they feel the EPA is more likely to strictly enforce water standards.
After the tribes contested the DEP's application, three paper companies, Great Northern Paper Inc., Georgia-Pacific Corp., and Champion International requested reams of tribal documents from the Penobscot Nation and Passamaquoddy Tribe related to water quality.
So far, Dana and other tribal members have refused to give those documents up, despite a series of rulings against the tribe — the latest from the federal 1st Circuit Court of Appeals — and the threat of fines and imprisonment.
Beneath that battle is the broader question of whether the Indian tribes should be treated as a municipal entity or a sovereign nation.
Under Maine's Indian Claims Settlement Act of 1980, the tribes are subject to state laws except for matters considered internal tribal matters.
Dana and other Indian leaders claim regulation of the water in their area is a tribal matter.
Mark Chavaree, legal analyst for the Penobscot Nation, said the paper companies have no right to the documents, because the Penobscots are a sovereign nation.
"We feel there are aspects of our government that we never gave up with the settlement act," said Chavaree.
So far, however, at least when it comes to the documents the paper companies want, the courts have disagreed.
Dana said he is determined to fight the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, although it is uncertain if that court will hear an appeal.
The Penobscot Nation is a modern entity with businesses, a sophisticated water-monitoring program, medical clinics and its own form of government, but it is still guided by traditional values, Dana said:
"Today it is very much a lot of the same things we have always done, just doing it in a new way."
Racing canoes are more likely to be made out of Kevlar than birch bark, and modern medicines are offered at the tribe's clinics. Yet, there are those in the community who still practice traditional healing methods.
But Dana said the tribe continues to make decisions based on the welfare of the whole tribe for generations and still values its ancient traditions.
He said he will continue to struggle for two things: that pollution of the river cease, and that the pollution already in the Penobscot be cleaned up.
It is a fight which is making waves far beyond the banks of the Penobscot.
Laura Rose Day, watershed project director for the Natural Resources Council of Maine in Augusta, said Dana has a unique status as an advocate for the river.
As the leader of a river nation, she said Dana reaches out for partners and uses both his tribe's technical expertise on water quality and unique cultural perspective to fight for the river.
"Barry is a very versatile leader. Protecting the Penobscot River is going to take a variety of tools and partnerships. I am confident he is going to use all of those tools on behalf of the Penobscot people."
In the end, she believes Dana and his tribe's fight for cleaner water will be successful.
"At the bottom line: There isn't anything more fundamental to people than water, and, as time goes on, fresh water just becomes more and more precious," she said.