The Town Council of Warren, RI established an American Indian Study Committee to: 1) examine the history and culture of the Pokanoket Tribe in the formation of the Town of Warren and to create an historically accurate narrative of that history; 2) evaluate how that history is currently portrayed within the Town of Warren; 3) […]
After 400 years of colonization of Massachusetts by Europeans, we enter a period of town anniversaries. How can we use them as an occasion to start addressing that “settlement” in Massachusetts also meant “displacement”, the beginning of attenuated conflict, and the “disappearing” of Native American presence and history, often in plain sight? As some leading […]
Carl Ferreira of Tiverton describes the stones on the Pocasset Ridge Trail that he believes held special significance for the Native American people who occupied the land. The two-mile trail leads to several rocks, one of which on the left can be rocked to produce a drumming sound that can be heard at great distances. […]
After 10,000 years of living in today’s New England Area, it’s not difficult to understand why Sowams was the ideal place for the 12,000 Pokaonket people who were known to be living there before the Europeans arrived. Jordan E. Kerber, writing in “Where are the Woodland Villages in the Narraganset Bay Region?” (Bulletin of the […]
We know that the Pilgrims encountered a brutal winter, and half of them died during that first winter. But, was that weather typical of the time? Was it what they expected to find? in this 22-minute video Sowams Heritage Area Coordinator describes the effect that changes in climate had on both English colonists and members […]
Mayflower Chronicles: The Tale of Two Cultures is a historical fiction account of the very real men, women, children, crew, and two dogs that sailed from Plymouth, England to what became Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620. It is also the story of the Natives who watched them build Plimoth Plantation and then came calling on the new […]