Pocasset Wampanoag Tribe of the Pokanoket Nation Reclaims 40 Acres of Native Land in Tiverton, Rhode Island

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Rematriation of historic land proves critical for the livelihoods and sustainability of the tribe; to be open to indigenous communities for traditional practices

Cranston, RI., Dec. 16, 2024 – The Pocasset Wampanoag Tribe of the Pokanoket Nation today announced the reclaiming of nearly 40 acres of historic land in Tiverton, Rhode Island, bringing the total amount of recovered tribal land to over 50 acres. The rematriation of the land––the site of The Battle in Tiverton during King Philip’s War––was made possible through an Open Space Grant provided by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) awarded to the Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust (PPLT) in collaboration with Bally’s Tiverton Hotel and Casino. PPLT intends to open the land to other historic indigenous clans of all Pocasset villages as a site of traditional native rituals, including hunting, fishing, foraging, harvesting, and ceremonial practices.

According to Britannica, more than 56 million acres of land exist as Native American reservations today, only accounting for about two percent of the ancestral indigenous land that the United States occupies.

“As the site of King Philip’s War––one of the most devastating conflicts to native people in American history––this land represents a significant ancestral heartbeat to the Pocasset Pokanoket people,” said Chief George Spring Buffalo, Chairman of the Pocasset Tribe of the Pokanoket Nation. “This land is more than soil and trees—it is the spirit of our ancestors and the promise of our future. To have it returned to us is to reclaim a piece of our identity, a place where our stories, ceremonies, and way of life can thrive again. We honor this gift with gratitude and a commitment to steward it as our forebears did, with respect for all living things.”

This particular parcel contains a portion of a large Atlantic White Cedar swamp, a globally imperiled forest type with an extensive history of commercial harvesting. The DEM Open Space Grant Program provides funding assistance for meaningful land conservation projects at the local level, prioritizing land with high natural resource value and placing an emphasis on preserving the natural heritage of Rhode Island. As a result of the remediation of this property, the swamp and surrounding land will be held in conservation in perpetuity.

“We are excited to be working in partnership with the Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust and the Pocasset Wampanoag Tribe of the Pokanoket Nation and believe firmly in this project and the benefit of protecting the Pocasset Cedar Swamp,” added DEM Director Terry Gray. “Rhode Islanders are proud to be a diverse people and celebrate our tribal communities. We are thrilled to play a small role in the return of this land as well as the renewal of hope for the Pocasset Pokanoket people.”

In addition to opening the land up to ancestral rituals and ceremonies, hunting & fishing indigenous means of conservation––including soil remediation, forest thinning, wildlife rehabilitation, traditional burns, and water quality testing, guided historical tours––will take place on the land in order to improve and conserve the damaged ecosystem.

About The Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust

The Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust (PPLT) is a tribally-led non-profit dedicated to reconnecting communities of American Indian tribes, clans, Urban Indians, and indigenous people across the Northeast. We embody an American Indian cosmology that holds Mother Earth and all living beings with deep reverence. As mindful caretakers of the land for all future generations, we teach our descendants to honor the connection to Earth, Sky, Water and to the Creator.

Read DEM Press Release

 

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

Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust Receives Food and Farm Communications Fund Core Grant for Second Consecutive Year

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The Food and Farm Communications Fund has awarded a Core Grant to the Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust (PPLT) to support strategic communications development. One of twenty organizations chosen throughout the country, the grant allows PPLT to increase content creation and social media presence in support of its Indigenous food access program and land repatriation projects in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

Esperanza Pallana, Executive Director of the fund said, “We are proud to continue our support of PPLT in 2023. They represent a critical narrative of a movement across the nation to reclaim ancestral land for regenerative agriculture and traditional land-based spiritual practices.”

Since 2012, the Food and Farm Communications Fund has awarded $5 million to grass-roots food and agricultural organizations that emphasize environmentally sustainable, and indigenous practices for use in the battle against climate change. Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust is proud to be among them.

“We are grateful for our partnership with the Food and Farm Communications Fund,” said Chief George Spring Buffalo, Executive Director of the Land Trust. “They have really helped us build our communications capacity. PPLT was formed with the intent of capturing back remnants of the Pocasset Purchase and we now steward historical lands in Tiverton. Our trust also provides an opportunity to unite different tribal communities, clans and Indigenous people back to our traditional ways of growing food and providing access to healthy medicine.”

Quaker Community Shows Historic Support for New England Tribes

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At the Southeast Quarterly Meeting in Providence on March 19, 2023, the Religious Society of Friends, better known as the Quakers, acknowledged that Indigenous Nations in New England were forced to give up large parts of their territory, and that the land on which the gathering occurred was the homeland of many Indigenous nations. Facilitated by the Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust (PPLT), the meeting, attended by tribal chiefs of the Pocasset, Chappaquiddick, Nipmuc and Narragansett, was an historic first step toward supporting tribes, according to Chris Richards, Director of Programming and Development, PPLT.

“Our meeting was meaningful, but we still have work to do,” said Chief George Spring Buffalo. “They let us take the lead in how to build the relationship; we’re going to collaborate and we’re grateful that they’re reaching out to the Indigenous population.” Discussions are ongoing about the next steps. Rebecca Leuchak, Presiding Clerk of the New England Yearly Meeting of the Quakers, introduced the assembly: “We recognize the irreducible and ongoing relationship Indigenous people have with their traditional territories; the honoring of this relationship and the speaking of it to all, becomes meaningful when it is the basis for building relationships.”

Governor Mckee, DEM Announce $2.7 Million in Green Bond Investments to Help RI Communities Protect Open Space

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Press Release from RI Governor Dan McKee

DEM RIPROVIDENCE – Governor Dan McKee and the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) announced today the awarding of more than $2.73 million in grants to help communities and local organizations protect valuable green space throughout Rhode Island. Ten projects will receive matching grants to protect 400 acres of open space and farmland across the state. The funding is made possible by the 2016 and 2018 green economy bonds, both of which were passed overwhelmingly by voters and made investments in preserving open space, improving recreational facilities, and cleaning up lands and waters.

“From clean water, natural flood control, and wildlife habitat to biodiversity and recreation opportunities, there are many diverse benefits from open space and Rhode Islanders recognize this,” said Governor Dan McKee. “This is why I proposed a green bond in my fiscal year 2023 budget that includes $5 million for the further preservation of open spaces. Green bonds support what we love about Rhode Island.”

Rhode Island’s historic parks, bikeways, and green spaces provide opportunity for public enjoyment – in addition to improving the health of the environment, strengthening the state’s climate resilience, and supporting the economy. Outdoor recreation in Rhode Island generates $2.4 billion in consumer spending and supports 24,000 local jobs, according to the Outdoor Industry Association. Since 1985, DEM has helped protect nearly 13,000 acres of land through open space grants.

“The value of our state’s historic investments in open spaces has come into sharper relief in the past two years with the COVID pandemic as Rhode Islanders have explored open spaces in greater numbers, looking for places to unwind and forget their troubles,” said DEM Acting Director Terry Gray. “The investments we are announcing today are for our children and the generations to come who are counting on us to be good stewards of our beautiful state.”

Grants up to $400,000 – which may cover up to half of the project cost – were awarded to help preserve lands that offer significant natural, ecological, or agricultural value and those that connect or expand existing protected lands. DEM’s successful Open Space Grant program has provided funding for the preservation of nearly 13,000 acres of land across the state since its inception in 1985. DEM has worked with partners in every municipality to complete 197 easement transactions with land trusts and local communities to date, furthering the mission of preserving Rhode Island’s precious resources and increasing the public’s access and enjoyment of our natural lands. Over the years, this grant program has resulted in the protection of places used by residents and tourists alike for outdoor recreation – and has also contributed to the economic health of the state. These natural assets play a big role in the state’s tourist economy by providing opportunities for the public to camp, fish, hunt, hike, and enjoy the great outdoors, and at the same time bring revenue to the local economy.

The Open Space grants being awarded today to protect 400 acres of open space and farmland include:

  • Town of Charlestown: $400,000 grant to acquire 90 acres of forestland in northern Charlestown. The property contains an important wetland complex that surrounds Saw Mill Pond. The land is part of a greater than 250-acre area of unfragmented forest and is nearly contiguous with The Nature Conservancy’s Carter Preserve, which includes 1,000+ acres of conservation land.
  • Town of East Greenwich: $400,000 grant to acquire 42 acres in southern East Greenwich. This property anchors the southern end of a National Register Historic District and is under intense development pressure. The Hunt River flows through its scenic viewshed of upland hardwood and agricultural fields, which provide a diverse array of habitats and recreation potential.
  • Cumberland Land Trust: $400,000 to acquire 84.3 acres of forested upland in Cumberland. The Cracco property sits between DEM’s 400-acre Diamond Hill Reservation, and 700 acres of conservation land owned by the Cumberland Land Trust. The property is dominated by upland forest, wetlands, numerous stone walls, historical orchards, and steep slopes. The significant wetlands flow to the Pawtucket and Diamond Hill Reservoirs, a major source of drinking water for the Pawtucket and Cumberland residents.
  • South Kingstown Land Trust (SKLT): $400,000 grant to acquire a conservation easement over 52 acres that abuts Rhode Island Audubon’s Marion Eppley Wildlife Sanctuary, which contains over 1,100 acres in both South Kingstown and Exeter. The property also supports the integrity of protected lands and SKLT’s trail system on the east side of Yawgoo Pond, an important coastal plain pond, the shoreline of which is already about 65% protected.
  • Little Compton Agricultural Conservancy Trust: $375,000 to acquire 5 acres at the mouth of the Fogland/Donovan Marsh estuary. The Ratcliffe property contains a sandy beach that supports nesting piping plovers, mudflats that supply foraging opportunities to a host of shore and wading birds, high and low salt marsh, and coastal thicket. With direct road access, this property will be open for swimming, paddling, fishing, and passive recreation.
  • Town of Middletown: $200,000 grant for the Town of Middletown to purchase 9 acres of a larger 60-acre farmland (wholesale nursery) tract with the remaining 51 acres being purchased using Open Space bond funds issued by Middletown. The Town’s plan for the 9-acre parcel includes preserved open space and scenic vistas while the remaining 51 acres would be slated for recreation and municipal functions.
  • Town of Burrillville: $70,000 grant for the Town of Burrillville to purchase 3 acres that abut Granite Mill Park in the historic village of Pascoag. This forested property has approximately 1,000 feet of shoreline along Union Pond and would be accessed by a connecting trail from Gonyea Park and a new parking area to be built on the property off High Street.
  • Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust (PPLT): $42,500 grant for Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust to purchase several adjoining parcels totaling approximately 38 acres in northeastern Tiverton. This land abuts the Rhode Island/Massachusetts state boundary and is within proximity to the Fall River metropolitan area. PPLT intends to use this land for conservation, recreation, memorialization, and preservation of historically significant tribal lands.
  • Town of Bristol: $197,500 for the Town of Bristol to purchase 7 acres abutting the 110-acre Perry/Tavares open space tract owned by the Town and managed for public access and passive recreation by Bristol Conservation Commission. This forested property contains an intermittent stream that connects to a perennial stream on the existing protected open space to the north. This is the last sizable parcel abutting the Perry/Tavares tract that remains open space.
  • Town of Burrillville: $250,000 for the Burrillville Land Trust to purchase the 65-acre O’Leary farmland contiguous with the 150-acre Buck Hill Scout Reservation and 1,300-acre Buck Hill Management Area. The property contains roughly 20 acres of prime agricultural soils and 45 acres of forestland. The O’Leary farmland is one of the last remaining working farm parcels in the Town and boats more than 4,000 feet of road frontage along Buck Hill and Croff Roads.

For more information about DEM divisions and programs, visit www.dem.ri.gov or follow us on Facebook, Twitter (@RhodeIslandDEM), or Instagram (@rhodeisland.dem) for timely updates.

Agreement with Twin River-Tiverton

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

POCASSET INDIANS SETTLE WITH TWIN RIVER-TIVERTON CASINO

Chief George Spring Buffalo of the Pocasset Tribe of the Pokanoket Nation (“Tribe”) announced today that the Tribe has entered into an Agreement with Twin River-Tiverton LLC to settle all matters relating to the development of the casino on lands of historical and cultural significance to the Pocasset Tribe.

Casino Agreement“We are excited to work together with Twin River-Tiverton in respect of the cultural and historical connection of this casino land to the Pocasset ancestors of the Tribe” said Chief Spring Buffalo. “The Casino is built on lands that were granted by the colonial government as the first Indian reservation in the United States, and near the site of an important battle in the King Philip War” Spring Buffalo added, “and this agreement respects the cultural significance of these lands, and the historical importance of the Pocasset Tribe. I want to thank Chief Duane Yellow Feather Shepard and Chief Daryl Black Eagle Jamieson and the support of the Tribal Council.”

Members of the present day Pocasset Tribe are the direct descendants of the Royal Family of the Pokanoket Nation, including Massasoit (also known as “Ousamequin”), the Sachem of the Pokanoket Nation who led his nation when the Pilgrims arrived in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Massasoit entered into a treaty with the Pilgrims in 1621 assuring the peaceful coexistence of the colonists and the Indians. Massasoit’s territory extended from the eastern tip of Cape Cod through southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island to the Connecticut River, and north to the Charles River. The Pocasset Tribe has never left its land and retained unbroken existence as a sovereign nation. The Pocasset Tribe has been recognized as the direct descendants of the original beneficiaries and heirs to certain lands in Fall River and Tiverton, and can prove so through well-documented history. There was a large and prosperous village of Indians throughout Tiverton, which previously was named ‘Pocasset’.

“Our history in Rhode Island is long and respected,” said Chief Spring Buffalo. “The Tribe itself has been a significant factor in the history of the formation of our country. There have been many books written about the Pocassets and its woman chief, Weetamoe, and all of the happenings surrounding the King Philips War, and our intent is to ensure that our culture and heritage shall be maintained in perpetuity.” Spring Buffalo added, “it is not our intent to kick anyone off their land where they live and work . . . we are asking that the governments correct the past injustices which they allowed to happen.”

For More Information Contact: Lesley S. Rich, Esq. 401-529-1191