“Black and Red” Documentary to Premiere at Nichols College

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The Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities-supported documentary project, “Black and Red: the Dilemma of African American-Indigenous Identity in Massachusetts,” will premiere at Nichols College in Dudley, MA on Tuesday, October 15. The educational event will host high school and college students and include a showing of the film, a performance by the traditional drumming group, Eastern Medicine Singers, an exhibit by Pocasset artist Cynthia Meeks, and a panel discussion.

The documentary, with matching support from the Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust (PPLT), is part of the Expand Massachusetts Stories Initiative of the Massachusetts Foundation, and one of forty-two cultural projects chosen for 2024. The film includes a series of compelling interviews by tribal members about their perspectives as multiracial individuals in Massachusetts and their experiences being misidentified in their own communities. History tells us that a special Indian Census in Massachusetts included mixed blood families for the first time in 1910, and that the census taker made the calculation himself from the possible Indian, White and Negro categories.

With an effort spearheaded by Professor Bryant Richards, Nichols College has provided funding to host the premiere. For more information, please email Chris Richards, Director of Development and Programming Director at the Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust.

Ocean Hour Farm Awards Grant to PPLT for Indigenous Food Sovereignty Program

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Ocean Hour Farm in Newport, RI has chosen Indigenous Roots Forever Food Sovereignty Program as an awardee in support of its traditional gardening practices and transition mentoring goals in Rhode Island and Connecticut. The grant will ensure regenerative farming skill development among tribal participants by training them to grow their own produce for five months of the year and build more economic self-sufficiency among families.

Ocean Hour Farm is a center for education, scientific research and regenerative farming practices, with emphasis on the connection between land and ocean; the grant program funds efforts to fill knowledge and infrastructure gaps to accelerate and support an inclusive transition to regenerative and traditional land management in our local food-and-fiber shed.

Narragansett Clan Chief Musquant Nompashim Netas (Rocky Johnson) will continue to provide leadership on the project, mentoring his son and tribal member, Bow Johnson. Bow will now be able to assist and carry on the legacy of their tribal roots, with a spirit of cooperation and community.

First Big Drum Pow Wow Since Pandemic Creates Unity

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The first Big Drum Pow Wow since COVID-19 was held on Saturday, August 3rd at River Island Park, Woonsocket, RI, uniting tribal members of all generations, other tribal nations, and non-Native community members. Funding was provided by the Rhode Island Foundation.

Several hundred individuals enjoyed food, native arts, crafts, dancing and storytelling, hosted by Ambassador Chief Daryl Black Eagle Jamieson and Board Member John Graham. Nations represented included Pequot and Eastern Pequot, Narragansett, Nipmuc, Wabanaki, Taino and Indigenous tribal members from Central America. Founded in 1916, the Rhode Island Foundation is the state’s largest funder of Rhode Island non-profits; its community grants program supports what it calls “unique” and “important” events.

“It was good to hear the big drum again and to see all the generations represented,” says Chief Sequan Pijaki, Chairman of the Pocasset Wampanoag Tribe of the Pokanoket Nation, and founder of PPLT. We are grateful for the support of the RI Foundation, and for the attendance by our other funders at this opportunity for us to gather in person once again.”

PPLT to partner with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance on Composting Program

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The Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust (PPLT) received a grant from the Institute of Self-Reliance (ILSR) to increase community composting efforts within PPLT’s Indigenous Food Sovereignty Program. PPLT was one of 10 awardees selected from a competitive pool of applicants across New England.

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance, founded in 1974, is a national research, advocacy, and technical assistance organization that empowers communities to take charge of their local resources, economies, and environmental future. Through its Composting for Community Initiative, ILSR promotes distributed and diverse local composting across the country, aiming to cut food loss, enhance soils and watersheds, support local food production, and protect the climate while addressing community prosperity and equity.

“We are grateful for this new partnership with the Institute for Local Self-Resiliency as composting is very important to our program,” says Musquant Nompashim Netas, Chief of the Ninigret Nehantick Nahaganset Clan and Leader of the Indigenous Food Sovereignty Program. “Composting is recycling. When we feed the Earth, the Earth will feed us.”

Learn More About the Awards

 

May 24th: Join Us for The Conway School Spring Project Presentations

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Please join us for a day (or an hour) on Friday, May 24, starting at 9 am to hear about the large-scale design projects our Class of 2024 is working on. As usual, we’ve invited an excellent panel of reviewers to provide feedback: Jesse Bellemare, Jonathan Fogelson, and Genevieve Lawlor ’11.

Registration is required, and the event will be held on Zoom. You can pop in and out as your time allows and provide comments on the projects live!

Spring 2024 projects include:

  • Climate Resilience Project, D.W. Field Park, Avon, MA
  • Charlemont Fairgrounds Redesign, Charlemont, MA
  • A Revitalized Home Base for the Greenagers, April Hill, South Egremont, MA
  • Main Street Bridge Climate Resilience Project, Hampden, MA
  • The Harmonium Botanical Sanctuary and Retreat Center, Conway, MA
  • The Nolumbeka Project, Greenfield, MA
  • Rural Food Forest at Double Edge Theatre, Ashfield, MA
  • Urban Food Forest at the Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School, Springfield, MA
  • Restoration and Design Work, Wainer Woods, Westport, MA
Register Project Descriptions

Sharing the Story of the Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust

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Chief George Spring Buffalo (Sequan Pijaki), Founder and Executive Director of the Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust and Daryl Black Eagle Jamieson (Suki Wompsikuk), Board Member of the Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust discuss how the RI Foundation’s first grant was directed to hiring Chris Richards, a grant writer, who brought in $1.5M in funding. Also cited is Rocky Johnson, (Musquant Nompashim Netas), Chief of the Ninigret Nehantick Nahaganset Clan. Rocky leads the PPLT’s Indigenous Food Sovereignty program, serving marginalized communities in Rhode Island and Connecticut.

Boston Foundation to Partner with Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust on Direct Services Program

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The Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust has received a $50,000 grant from the Boston Foundation to provide direct assistance to families in Eastern Massachusetts.

“This grant will help our Tribal and BIPOC communities struggling to keep up with the historic rise in food, electricity and housing costs,” said Chief Sequan Pijaki, aka Chief George Spring Buffalo. “We are grateful for this partnership with the Boston Foundation.”

Established in 1915, the Boston Foundation is one of the largest community foundations in the nation—with net assets of $1.8 billion. Funds for this grant come from the Boston Foundation’s Fund for Boston’s Future, an endowed pool of funds built over more than a century by generous contributors who want to help the Greater Boston community thrive. The Food, Fuel, and Shelter Fund is designed to support social service organizations that respond to essential needs for marginalized communities and vulnerable residents in Greater Boston.

“The Pocasset Pokanoket Land trust plays a unique and vital role caring for the rights and wellbeing of indigenous communities on the ancestral lands upon which Greater Boston stands today,” said Orlando Watkins, Vice President and Chief Program Officer of the Boston Foundation. “Experience has shown the powerful role direct cash assistance can have in support of families, and we are proud to be able to support their effort to provide such assistance to indigenous people across Massachusetts.”

Rhode Island Foundation to Partner with PPLT on Indigenous Food Sovereignty Program

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The Rhode Island Foundation has awarded the Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust a one-year Responsive Grant to support the Indigenous Food Sovereignty work in Southern Rhode Island. Program activities include building backyard gardens for Indigenous families and training the families in caring for the gardens using traditional practices. The initiative is headed by Musquant Nompashim Netas, leader of the Ninigret Nehantic Nahaganset Clan and Chief Sequan Pijaki, Chairman of the Pocasset Wampanoag Tribe.

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. The Foundation’s Responsive Grant program supports initiatives that address urgent community needs. The grants are awarded to organizations across the nonprofit sector – regardless of the subject-matter or area of need that they focus on.

“Once again, we are grateful for our partnership with the Rhode Island Foundation,” said Chief Sequan Pijaki. “Their consistent support has really helped us grow our land, farm, and food programs throughout the state.”

 

Historic Westport Farm Comes Back to Life

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Photo by Merri Cyr; Article Ted Hayed in East Bay RI Newsletter

Wainer Farm was once owned by Paul Cuffe

A lot of people don’t know about Native American culture; they may be interested, but they don’t know where to learn. And so we wanted to tie it all in together. – Robert Cox

Over the last five decades, vines and thickets real and metaphorical have all but claimed the old Wainer Farm on Drift Road, closing off and choking out an irreplaceable piece of Westport’s history.

But now, a descendent of the prominent Westport family that purchased the farm from Paul Cuffe 225 years ago this year is working to reclaim the land from time’s weeds.

Robert Cox, a Pocasset Pokanoket, has spent the past year working on a plan to resurrect the old farm, which today totals about 52 acres but was once three times that size, running west from the East Branch of the Westport River all the way to Main Road.

Though it has been fallow for years, the farm holds an important place in early Westport history.

Paul Cuffe, the noted African American businessman, sailor and Quaker who founded the nation’s first integrated school in Westport, purchased the property for his business partner and brother-in-law, Michael Wainer, and sister Mary Wainer, in 1799, and sold it to Michael in 1800. Once worked as an operating farm, the property has remained in the Wainer family ever since and today is owned by an LLC comprised of Wainer descendents George Wortham Jr., Jesse Williams III and Jessye Williams, Cox’s cousins.

After learning about his roots over the past several years, Cox has found himself as the lead person on the restoration effort, which will see the property take on a new role.

A fireman by trade, he has spent about a year working to clear the land, establish relationships with non-profits, the town, educators and others, like foresters and botanists, and hopes to turn the property into a historical and environmental education center, meeting place and a place of peaceful, quiet reflection.

“We want to share the history of the family, the history of the tribe, and just have a general gathering place where people can network and get in touch with the land,” he said.

“Since the 1700s there has always been community back up there — it’s always been a gathering spot. So I wanted to bring back that concept, to be able to teach and share somewhere where children and parents can come and learn. A lot of people don’t know about Native American culture; they may be interested, but they don’t know where to learn. And so we wanted to tie it all in together.”

How that mission is served remains to be seen, as it will take many more months for Cox’s vision to come into focus. But he hopes to develop relationships with area environmental organizations like the Buzzards Bay Coalition, and farmers and others, and set up a series of outdoor classrooms where people can learn about herbal medicine, foraging, botany and farming. Further, there are plans to make the land available to others who wish to use it and whose goal jibes with the owners’, valuing education, respect for history, and the environment.

“We plan on having a lot of events, not just for tribal members, but for everybody,” he said. “It’s going to take time, and it’s going to take money. But we want to be able to give people who come out of there something more than they came in with whether it’s understanding, the opening of eyes, or something as simple as a recipe, a medicinal plant they didn’t know about, or a relaxed mind.”

Betty Slade, a Westport historian who knew Cox’s father well, said his stewardship over the land has been inspiring, after having seen it sit unused for so long. She said it’s not surprising he’s been received with open arms by local environmental and historical organizations, and many of his neigbhbors, as he seeks to open up and preserve the land and establish programming and a public presence there.

“It’s remarkable what he’s done in such a short amount of time,” she said. “It’s been really great to see, and very exciting.”

If you’d like to read more about the land, Paul Cuffe, or Cox’s plans, see paulcuffe.org or pocassetpokanoket.com.

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.