PROVIDENCE – Twelve days after more 50 members of the Pokanoket nation occupied a 375-acre plot of land currently owned by Brown University in Bristol, the federally unrecognized group turned down a university-crafted plan which would provide access to multiple indigenous nations, according to a Thursday release from the Ivy League university.
In a Thursday statement evening, Brown said: “The University is deeply concerned and saddened that this plan — as well as all efforts and entreaties to work toward an inclusive resolution — has been refused by the Pokanoket, based on their contention that other Native tribes do not have a legitimate interest in or a connection with this land.”
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Raymond “Two Hawks” Watson, current Mashapaug Nahaganset leader and director general of the Federation of Aboriginal Nations of America, to which the Pokanoket belong, was not immediately available for comment.
The land in question, which was donated to the university beginning in the 1950s by the Haffenreffer family, is currently hosts a nature preserve, research center and the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology.
The Pokanoket refer to the same plot as Potumtuk and consider it their nation’s spiritual ground.
Members of the Brown administration traveled to the encampment to meet with the nation’s leader, also known as the Sagamore, Po Wauipi Neimpaug at least twice during the 13-day-long standoff before issuing the report on Thursday.
The report, “Path Forward Principles and Parameters” is a document which “ensures conservation, preservation and sustainable access of the Native people related to this land,” according to a letter from Russell C. Carey, executive vice president, planning and policy, which accompanied its release.
Among seven points, the plan seeks to ensure access to the land for the university, “Native peoples related to the land” and other stakeholders; calls on the Town of Bristol and State of Rhode Island to be involved in further consultation and commits an unspecified amount of university funds to a “cultural and environmental resource survey” of the land which is expected to last 12 to 18 months.
Brown believes the results of the survey could include transferring management “to a trust, to a co-management agreement, to a new or existing nonprofit organization as well as division of the property.”
However, Brown refuses to move forward while the encampment of the land, and the refusal of access to the public, continues.
As reported by the Providence Business News on Friday, the Pokanoket nation is willing to take the matter to court to repatriate what they believe is their rightful property.
The university’s Native American and Indigenous Studies department also weighed in on the discussion. On August 24 it published a statement which read, in part:
“In Rhode Island, the Narragansett Indian Tribe in South County is the only federally recognized tribe. While there is a long history of erasure and forced assimilation of Native peoples in the Northeast, meaning many tribal communities have been written out of history, the Pokanoket Tribe is not recognized by the federal government or the state, and more importantly is not recognized by the other federally recognized Wampanoag communities.”
This status, or lack thereof, the statement read, means the nation is not able to put their lands – those currently in possession of the university – into a federal trust, what the NAIS called “the cornerstone of tribal sovereignty.”
Emily Gowdey-Backus is a staff writer for PBN. You can follow her on Twitter @FlashGowdey or contact her via email, gowdey-backus@pbn.com.
