Patricia Newman: Hello, this is Patricia Newman and I'm the author of A River's Gifts: The Mighty Elwha River Reborn. I like true stories, especially true stories about nature and how it helps us. A River's Gifts is an amazing true story about a river important to the Strong People, a tribe in Washington State. You see, the Elwha River has been around for tens of thousands of years, tumbling through steep canyons, carrying rocks, branches, and gravel, and winding a twisting path through the forest. The river fed the salmon that grew up in its waters, and the salmon in turn fed the birds, the bears, otters who lived in the forest near the river. When the Strong People arrived, the river fed them too. And for thousands of years, river, forest, salmon, and Strong People nourished one another. I love this connection to the river. It's what made me want to write about it. Then strangers arrived and everything changed.

So I'd like to read you a little bit from A River's Gifts, and I'd like to begin in the middle after the strangers arrive. So here we go.

The strangers wrote new laws. Strong People cannot own land. Strong People cannot fish. Laws that separated the Strong People from their food, their homes, their culture. Laws that made them outsiders in their own land. And then in 1890, Thomas Aldwell came to town with big plans for the river's natural abundance and inexhaustible energy. He built a dam on the Elwha River, a marvel of engineering to harness the thundering water and make something new called electricity. Electric lights in people's homes, electric tram cars in town, electric-powered sawmills for new jobs. "The Elwha is now under control," trumpeted the newspaper. Excitement crackled like the newfangled electricity. Life was easier, or was it? Above the dam, the river pooled into a lake, a lake that overflowed the river's banks, flooding the Strong People's sacred creation site, flooding their hunting, fishing, and berry picking grounds. And still they had no electricity.

So I hope you keep reading to find out how the Strong People finally saw their chance to make things right again.