Sowams, the homeland of the Pokanoket Tribal Nation and their leader, the Massasoit Ousamequin, is the setting for one of our nation’s origin stories. It is their critical alliance that established 50 years of peace between the Indigenous tribes that had farmed, fished, and hunted the region for millennia – and the English settlers arriving on the Mayflower.  Click here for a 75-minute video of a presentation about Sowams by Project Coordinator David Weed given at a Brown Bag on-line event for the Lifelong Learning Collaborative on February 21, 2024.

(Above) Lecture Organizer/Moderator Jane Adler introduced Dr. Weed who began by describing the location of Sowams between the Moshassuck River in Providence and the Taunton River in Somerset. This was the ancestral home of the Pokanoket Tribe and the home of the Massasoit Ousamequin who met the Pilgrims in Plymouth, 40 miles to the east, in 1621.

(Above) Providence colonial locations from the 17th century include the North Burial Ground, the Roger Williams Memorial and the Stephen Hopkins House, and the Weybosset Bridge. Indigenous locations include Sachem’s Knoll and Abrams Rock in Swansea, the Seat of Metacom in Bristol, and Neutaconkanut Hill in western Providence.

(Above) Weed told how Edward Winslow was credited with curing the Massasoit Ousamequin in 1623 and how Roger Williams was nursed back to health by Ousamequin after he was expelled from Salem in 1636. The Sowams Heritage Area website includes an interactive map linked to over 50 locations in Sowams.