MUH-HE-KUN-NE-TUK—the River That Flows BothWays. Native Americans revered the river and defined themselves by it for at least twelve millennia. Early European explorers and colonists renamed it many times: Mauritius; River of the Mountains; North River; Hudson River. It has been called America’s Rhine. Those who have lived or traveled along it, worked upon it, defended it, or simply beheld it, have valued this river out of all proportion to its meager 315 mile length. Others, too, who built on its shores, conducted commerce along it, transported upon it, and expelled industrial and municipal wastes into it, also relied on the river. Over the years the people who settled along it deforested its.
