Dave Weed, Coordinator of the Sowams Heritage Area Project, offered a series of presentations to people who came to the George Hail Library in Warren as part of Museum Day on May 18, 2024. Weed offered the public ten minute talks about the history of Warren, which was first known as Sowams, the homeland of the Massasoit Ousamequin who welcomed the Pilgrims in 1621. Click here for a 12-minute video of one of his talks.

Weed points out the frieze over the door of the Warren Town Hall that shows “Sowams 1621” and the image of Ousamequin. The town was known as Sowams before it was incorporated as Warren, Rhode Island after Massachusetts ceded the land in 1746 and the State of Rhode Island named the town for Sir Peter Warren.

A number of questions were posed about the origin of the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology in Bristol that was given to Brown University by the family of Rudolph Haffenreffer in 1953. The land includes the Seat of Metacom, a ceremonial site maintained for thousands of years by the Pokanoket Tribe.

Visitors look over a map of Sowams showing over fifty locations related to the 17th century, including Margaret’s Cave in Swansea where Roger Williams was said to have been sheltered there by Ousamequin in 1636 before Williams went on to found Providence. Weed is shown with a portrait of Ousamequin that is on display at the George Hail Library.