PPLT Receives Community Grant to Host Big Drum Powwow in Tiverton

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The Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust (PPLT) received a Community Grant from the Rhode Island Foundation to host a Big Drum Powwow in Tiverton. The local community will be invited to the event in the hope of bringing Native and non-Native people closer together.

The Rhode Island Foundation is the state’s largest funder of RI nonprofit organizations. It was organized at the Rhode Island Hospital Trust Co. in June 1916 by a small group of prominent Rhode Islanders and was modeled after the first community foundation established in Cleveland two years earlier. The Foundation’s Community Grants program supports community-making efforts that make unique and important things happen at the intersection of people and places.

“We are grateful for the RI Foundation for supporting this endeavor and look forward to sharing our traditions,” says Chief Sequan Pijaki, Chairman of the Pocasset Wampanoag Tribe of the Pokanoket Nation and founder of PPLT.

Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust Receives Island Foundation Environmental Grant

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The Island Foundation has awarded the Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust (PPLT) an environmental grant for 2024. The funds will support general operating costs associated with important conservation work in Tiverton, Rhode Island. PPLT will be purchasing sixty-seven acres of ancestral lands in the spring. The majority of this land is historically significant wetlands, serving as an important site during King Phillip’s War. Upon completing the purchase, PPLT intends to create a management plan for Indigenous stewardship. If feasible, trails will be constructed for public access.

The Island Foundation, which was founded in 1979 by W. Van Alan Clark, Jr. and Mary H. Clark., awards Environmental Grants to a variety of initiatives in Southern Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Maine, including those that support working landscapes (sustainable agriculture and community-based fisheries); help local conservation organizations build capacity; and promote environmental justice.

“I want to thank the Island Foundation for their support throughout the years … for funding our Indigenous Peoples Network and PPLT, and our Indigenous Roots Forever programs,” says Chief George Spring Buffalo, Executive Director of PPLT. “These programs provide food, health and the preservation of our culture in indigenous communities. Indigenous Roots Forever is about coming back home to our lands and sustaining the culture of our people.”