For R.I.’s indigenous people, good jobs and prosperity are often out of reach

For 51 years, Robert Shumate said he has been “keeping South ­County cool.” Owner of Pier Ice Plant in Narragansett and a Narragansett Indian Tribe member, Shumate says he was lucky to grow up in a family that owned its own business. “The day my dad showed up here … I don’t think he had