Local News
The land was the ancestral site of a historic leader of the Pokanoket tribe who died during King Philip’s War in 1676.
Members of the Pokanoket Indian Tribe, led by Sachem Dancing Star, broke ground Sunday on a 255-acre site in Bristol, R.I., after Brown University transferred the land to a tribal trust. Courtesy of Sachem Dancing Star
Brown University transferred 225 acres in Bristol, Rhode Island, to a preservation fund established by the Pokanoket Tribe, a native tribe with historical and cultural ties to the property.
Brown acquired a 375-acre property in 1955 in Mount Hope, where the university has its Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology and an outing center. The museum will be moved to Providence, the Ivy League university announced.
Mount Hope is also the ancestral home of Metacom, a Pokanoket chief also known as King Philip who died there during King Philip’s War in 1676. Metacom was the chief sachem of the Wampanoag when the English purchased their lands in the 1990s. 1670.
The transfer comes after a 2017 agreement that ended a month-long Pokanoket encampment at the site.
The sachem (or chief) of the Pokanoket tribe, Tracey “Dancing Star” Trezvant Guy, said The Boston Globe that the tribe plans to obtain an appraisal of the land, known as Potumtuk, which means “the lookout point of the Pokanoket.”
“The importance of this land goes back to time immemorial for our people,” she said in a statement to the Globe. “For the first time in over 340 years, we opened the gates to the property ourselves and walked onto our land. It’s important. It’s historic.
The land transfer, which cannot be amended, states that the Pokanoket “shall, at all times and in perpetuity, provide and maintain access to the lands and waters of the property to all members of all tribes historically part of the Pokanoket Nation/Confederacy, and to all members of the Gay Head (Aquinnah) Wampanoag Tribe, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, the Assonet Band of the Wampanoag Nation, Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe and Pocasset Tribe of the Pokanoket Nation.
Russell Carey, executive vice president for planning and policy at Brown, said the initial gift to the university asked the university to be mindful of “the great natural beauty of the property, its historic context or the best interests of the community of Bristol.”
“These words remain as true and relevant today as when they were written nearly 70 years ago, and the steps we are taking to preserve the earth in perpetuity are, we believe, fully consistent with this vision,” Carey said.
Brown sold the remainder of the property to the city of Bristol for preservation and conservation purposes. The sale will be finalized in early 2025.
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