Every summer the Lenape traveled with the seaward tide to harvest the oysters from the Muhheakantuck or the River that flows both ways. The middens of discard shells created large mounds and the Dutch named a path Pearl Street for the luminous nacres. PSD the name Manhattan means “place of inebriation.
Judy Nylon wrote The story of oysters is their indispensable role in nurturing our coastal ecosystems. “The Billion Oyster Project” and the powerful non-profit, Everglades Foundation, who are set up for conservation insights, should of course include input from Muscogee Nation of Florida on water ecosystems. The oral history of the local tribe, caretaking, saved the Everglades when it was almost destroyed in the 1960s (when I lived there). In the frame of ‘ocean preservation ‘science and tribal experience are not oppositional. OYSTERS clean the water networks.