Before there were property lines and state borders, there was Sowams, a fertile land that’s witnessed thriving civilizations since the glaciers receded 12,000 years ago, which was inhabited and named by the Pokanoket Tribe. Today this region is delineated by nine towns spread across the East Bay of Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts, but its history goes way back before being “founded.”
Sowams is “the time and place where two worlds met,” which is the first of five interpretive themes laid out by the Sowams Heritage Area Project, explains project advisor Andrea Rounds. She and a steering committee comprise a concerted effort to earn the historically significant place a National Heritage Area (NHA) designation – a recognition of a region’s past and present. For Sowams, this spans indigenous and colonial origins to conservation for tomorrow.
Seven years ago, before the idea of a NHA project was on anyone’s mind, now-project coordinator Dr. David Weed had recently retired when he learned that Massasoit Ousamequin, the sachem or leader of the Pokanoket Tribe, would be reburied behind his house in Burr’s Hill Park in Warren.
“It’s like having George Washington reburied in your backyard,” says Weed. “I’d lived here for 30 years and never knew anything about the early history of this area. So I began asking questions.” He set out to find landmarks of the 17th century, talking with historians and members of the Pokanoket Tribe, to map out the story of Sowams on today’s landscape.
For those who never learned about Ousamequin and Sowams beyond a line or two in a history book, the land now occupied by the towns of Barrington, Bristol, East Providence, part of Providence, and Warren in Rhode Island, and Rehoboth, Seekonk, Somerset, and Swansea in Massachusetts was the setting of events that would define our nation’s origin story.
In 1621, the pilgrims and Ousamequin formed a treaty that protected the Pokanoket Tribe, who were vulnerable after suffering a plague, and enabled the English colonists to survive, learning from the tribe how to hunt and farm the land. During that time of peace, Ousamequin sheltered Roger Williams, who arrived in Sowams in 1636 after fleeing religious persecution in Massachusetts, and went on to found Providence and lay the groundwork for the separation of church and state – which ties into the committee’s third theme: freedom of conscious and the birth of Rhode Island.
But the peace treaty wouldn’t last. As more colonists arrived and encroached on the region, tribal populations were diminished by smallpox outbreaks and the loss of their homeland. The tension between settlers and indigenous tribes culminated with King Philip’s War in 1675, named after what the English called Ousamequin’s son Metacomet.
“It was devastating. It was the largest per capita fatality rate in North American history,” explains Rounds. “It became illegal for a Pokanoket to call themselves Pokanoket; they couldn’t speak the language anymore. In some ways, it was ground zero for what would become a pattern over time across our continent where encroachment occurs on native lands and indigenous peoples are subjugated.”
The second project theme deals with these consequences of King Philip’s War, and the fourth, Rounds explains, addresses the era of the slave trade that follows, acknowledging the Pokanoket who were enslaved by colonists and sent to Barbados after the war, as well as the role Rhode Island played in the industrial complex that made its fortune on the slave trade.
Rounds emphasizes, “What a National Heritage Area aspires to be is a living landscape; it’s not just about the past. It’s about how you carry your legacy and your heritage and all its complexity.”
Development and climate change have sculpted the region of Sowams into a place likely unrecognizable to its 17th century inhabitants. As shorelines recede with sea level rise and low-lying towns like Warren, Barrington, and Bristol are increasingly vulnerable to flooding during major storm events, it will be difficult to separate historic preservation from land stewardship going forward.
The fifth interpretive theme of the Sowams Heritage Area Project is the interplay of land and water. For the Warren Land Conservation Trust (WLCT), this means a number of things in practice, from the possibility of forming a Palmer River Watershed Council to their groundbreaking work with Save the Bay to restore the saltwater hydrology of marshes, vital ecosystems that buffer stormwater flow and protect against flooding.
“The land itself, the environment, is an important part of the history and the story of the area,” says Rock Singewald, a steering committee member and past board president of the WLCT. One of the places the land trust protects is Sowams Meadow, “an area along the Palmer River that was farmed and used by Native Americans for thousands of years before colonists arrived,” says Singewald. “When the Pilgrims came to sign their peace treaty, this is where they came, to Warren, just down the river from Sowams Meadows where Ousamequin’s village was.”
Trekking through the salt marshes of Hale Farm Preserve, you may encounter sweetgrass. “When you see people smudging at Native American events, that’s what they’re smudging: sweetgrass. It smells like vanilla,” says Singewald. He describes WLCT’s ongoing project with Smith College’s Botany Department. “They have collected seeds from our sweetgrass population and harvested a small number of plants. They’re propagating them to provide a seed that can be given back to the Nipmuc and Pokanoket tribes for them to plant for their own ceremonial and ritual purposes.”
The WLCT has kept the Pokanoket Tribe in the loop with their conservation goals and restoration work, acknowledging that every property they own was part of the tribe’s homeland. “These were culturally and spiritually important to the tribes because they recognize that these are life-giving areas,” says Singewald.
“I’ve discovered how difficult it is to teach history to people who don’t think they’re interested in history,” shares Weed. “We’re hopeful that having a NHA will wake up more people.” To that end, Weed created a brochure of over 50 historic sites that’s been distributed widely; he teaches multi-week lifelong learning courses and gives informal history tours of various sites, only half-joking when he says, “Give me a date and time, a topic, and a cup of coffee, and I’ll be there.”
Making space for these important origin stories in school curriculum is also a priority, beginning with the Bristol-Warren Regional School District. “Whatever we come up with there will be shared with the Barrington and East Providence schools, as well,” says Weed. “Over the next few years, we’ll see students who are exposed to this information at three different grade levels.”
The Sowams Heritage Area Project held four community conversations last fall and this spring, presenting the broad strokes of the initiative, and, most importantly, hearing from a wide range of perspectives, from tribal members to historical societies and town planners, for their input on how best to tell Sowams’ stories. “We’re in the process of doing a feasibility study, which is really critical to the whole process of designation,” says Rounds. “It’s due diligence, making sure you’ve talked to everyone and included the community,” as well as verifying historical research with experts.
It may be years before Sowams is officially made a NHA, but the designation is just the surface. “If that doesn’t happen now or in the future, we will always be learning and listening, and we can still function as a heritage area – we can work together, build partnerships, and engage with the community as a heritage area.”
“I would say we already are a National Heritage Area,” echoes Weed. “We just need more people to know about it.”
The Sowams Heritage Area Project will continue hosting community events, addressing topics ranging from freedom of religion to the King Philip’s War with talks and open discussions. Find maps, brochures, and stories of 17th century Sowams, plus news and updates about the NHA project, at Sowams.org.
Interested in getting involved? Whether you’re an expert historian or social media guru, the project seeks a wide range of talents to make the NHA possible.
Monday, October 14 is Indigenous Peoples’ Day – watch for celebrations and educational opportunities taking place across the state.
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