Pokanoket nation set to march on Brown

THE POKANOKET NATION is marching on the Brown University convocation Tuesday afternoon. / COURTESY BROWN UNIVERSITY
THE POKANOKET NATION is marching on the Brown University convocation Tuesday afternoon. / COURTESY BROWN UNIVERSITY

PROVIDENCE – On the 17th day of its encampment of Brown University-owned land in Bristol, the Pokanoket nation will march in protest of the Ivy League school’s claims on Tuesday, the same day as Brown’s 254th Convocation marking the beginning of the 2017-2018 academic year and introducing incoming students to the school.

According to a release sent Monday by the Pokanoket, the nation specifically planned the march, which it is calling “Pokanoket Convocation: A March for the Land,” to coincide with the annual celebration.

According to a Tuesday release from Brown, Convocation will take place at 4:00 p.m. and will include 2,729 incoming undergraduate, graduate and medical school students. President Christina H. Paxson will officially open the school year and anthropology professor Daniel Jordan Smith will deliver the keynote address.

March participants are asked to meet at Brown Street Park in Providence on Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. The march will commence at 1:30 p.m. and proceed to the entrance of Brown’s main green.

- Advertisement -

The land in question, 375 acres in Bristol, is now home to the school’s Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology and was donated piecemeal to the university by the Haffenreffer family starting in the 1950s. The Pokanoket claim the land to be their spiritual high ground and the place of 17th century native leader Metacom’s, also known as Prince Phillip, death at the hands of colonizers.

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.

No posts to display