Home Nonprofit & Education Education Brown transfers 225 acres of land to Pokanoket Indian Tribe

Brown transfers 225 acres of land to Pokanoket Indian Tribe

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PBN Staff

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11/21/2024

BROWN UNIVERSITY has transferred ownership of 225 acres of its Mount Hope property in Bristol to the Pokanoket Indian Tribe, fulfilling a a pledge made in a 2017 agreement between the university and the tribe.

BRISTOL – Brown University has transferred ownership of 225 acres of its Mount Hope property to the Pokanoket Indian Tribe, fulfilling a pledge made in a 2017 agreement between the university and the tribe. The university said in a statement that the transfer, which was finalized on Nov. 15, will ensure the property’s preservation and

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BRISTOL – Brown University has transferred ownership of 225 acres of its Mount Hope property to the Pokanoket Indian Tribe, fulfilling a pledge made in a 2017 agreement between the university and the tribe. The university said in a statement that the transfer, which was finalized on Nov. 15, will ensure the property’s preservation and access to the land and waters extends to tribes and Indigenous people of the region. As the ancestral home of Metacom – the leader of the Pokanoket people who was also known as King Philip – and the site of his 1676 death during King Philip’s War, the land holds great historical and cultural significance to members of many Native and Indigenous communities. Brown committed in 2017 to the transfer of the land into a preservation trust to ensure appropriate stewardship of the unique historical, sacred and natural resource for future generations. Since its donation to Brown in 1955, the approximately 375-acre Mount Hope property has been home to its Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology collections and an outing center used for educational programs and field research. “The 1955 letter from the Haffenreffer family upon the donation of the Mount Hope property to the university noted that the family felt ‘sure that the trustees of an institution like Brown will not be unmindful of the property’s great natural beauty, its historical background or the best interests of the Bristol community,’ ” said Russell Carey, executive vice president for planning and policy at Brown. “Those 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 land in perpetuity are, we believe, fully consistent with that vision.” The remaining 120 acres of the land along the north and south of Tower Road will be sold to the town for preservation and conservation. “The sale of these parcels, which we expect to be finalized early in 2025, to the town of Bristol for preservation and conservation will ensure that no development occurs on them and further protects and buffers the land being placed in the preservation trust,” Carey said. The Nov. 15 transfer marks the first of two transactions to formally convey the 255 acres to the preservation trust. Brown is in the process of preparing to move its Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology collections from Bristol to Providence, and the university will retain ownership and control of the parcels where the research collection is held and associated support buildings (museum, barn and outing center) until the collection is fully relocated. Phase two of the conveyance to the trust will take place when that process is complete. The university expects to begin moving the museum collection in fall 2025 – and while schedules could shift due to the uncertainties of moving thousands of objects, Brown anticipates fully vacating the facilities the museum and collection occupy on the Mount Hope property by summer 2026, Carey said.