The Narragansett Indians are the descendants of the aboriginal people of the State of Rhode Island. Archaeological evidence and the oral history of the Narragansett People establish their existence in this region more than 30,000 years ago. This history transcends all written documentaries and is present upon the faces of rock formations and through oral history.
Indigenous peoples lived in the New England area for thousands of years. Gradually the Narragansett and other historic tribes developed societies as descendants of earlier cultures.
Archaeological evidence and the oral history of the Narragansett People establish their existence in this region more than 30,000 years ago. This history transcends all written documentaries and is present upon the faces of rock formations and through oral history.
Historically the Narragansett were one of the leading tribes of New England, controlling the west of Narragansett Bay in present-day Rhode Island, and also portions of Connecticut and eastern Massachusetts, from the Providence River on the northeast to the Pawcatuck on the southwest. The Narragansett culture has existed in the region for centuries. They had extensive trade relations across the region. The first European contact was in Narragansett Bay and described a large Indian population, living by agriculture and hunting, and organized under powerful "kings."
The Tribe and its members were considered warriors within the region. The Narragansett customarily offered protection to smaller tribes in the area. Certain Nipmuck bands, the Niantics, Wampanoag, and Manisseans all paid tribute to the Narragansett tribe
Between 1616 and 1619, pandemics originating from infectious diseases carried by European fishermen killed thousands of New England Algonquians in coastal areas south of present-day Rhode Island. At the time the English started colonizing New England in 1620, the Narragansett were the most powerful native nation in the southern area of the region; they had not been affected by the epidemics.
Massasoit of the Wampanoag nation allied with the English at Plymouth as a way to protect the Wampanoag from Narragansett attacks.In the fall of 1621, the Narragansett sent a "gift" of a snakeskin filled with arrows to the newly established English colony at Plymouth. The "gift" was a threatening challenge. The governor of Plymouth, William Bradford, sent the snakeskin back filled with bullets. The Narragansett understood the message and did not attack the colony.They had escaped the epidemics that in 1617 ravaged tribes further south on the coast.
European settlement in their territory did not begin until 1635, and in 1636 Roger Williams acquired land use rights from the Narragansett sachems.
These tribes all resided in areas of Rhode Island at the time of the first European settlement around 1635.
In 1636, Roger Williams acquired land use rights to Providence from the Narragansett Sachems. The colonists quickly came into contact with both the Narragansett and Niantic Sachems. Historically, tribal members had two homes; a winter home and a summer home. The winter home would be called a long house in which up to 20 families would live in over the cold winter months. During the summer, the tribe would move to the shore and construct Wigwams or Wetus, temporary shelter made of bark on the outside and woven mats on the inside. They would dig out large canoes from trees which could hold up to forty men.
Narragansett Tribe
the 18th century, reservation life was extremely harsh. The State abolished the position of the Sachem, the traditional tribal leader, and took over the affairs of the Tribe with a five-man council in 1792. However, tribal members continued to recognize the Sachems and traditional leadership. Due to the increase in number of colonists, the Narragansett hunting and farming grounds were greatly depleted. Colonists also introduced the common hog to the area. These domesticated hogs would roar along the coast and dig up the clam beds, a traditional food source for the Indians. The Tribe was under great pressure to abandon the traditional ways and adopt Waumpeshau (white man) ideas of civilization. As a result of dealing with the Waumpeshau, many debts were incurred which were paid off by land grants.
By the end of the 18th century, the reservation area had been reduced to 15,000 acres. In 1790, the U.S. Congress introduced and passed the Non-Intercourse Act, which prohibited the taking of Indian lands as payment for debts incurred. However, the intention of the Act was ignored in the 19th century when the State of Rhode Island unilaterally attempted to relieve itself of the responsibilities of trustee to the Narragansett People. In the 1740s during the First Great Awakening, colonists founded the Narragansett Indian Church, to try to convert natives to Christianity. The church and its surrounding 3 acres (12,000 m2) were the only property never to leave tribal ownership. This continuous ownership was critical evidence of tribal continuity when the tribe did the research and documentation needed to gain federal recognition, which it successfully did in 1983.
Later that Europeans and Native Americans realized they had different conceptions of land use.In 1636, the Narragansett sachems (leaders), Canonicus and Miantonomi, sold the land that became Providence to Roger Williams, a leader of English colonists.During the Pequot War of 1637, the Narragansett allied with the New England colonists.
However, the brutality of the English in the Mystic massacre shocked the Narragansett, who returned home in disgust.
After the defeat of the Pequot, the English gave captives to both their allies. The Narrangansett had conflict with the Mohegan over control of the conquered Pequot land.In 1643 Miantonomi led the Narragansett in an invasion of what is now eastern Connecticut. They planned to subdue the Mohegan and their leader Uncas. Miantonomi had an estimated 900-1000 men under his command.
The Narragansett forces fell apart, and Miantonomi was captured and executed by Uncas' brother. The following year, the new Narragansett war leader Pessicus renewed the war with the Mohegan. With each success, the number of Narragansett allies grew.The Mohegan were on the verge of defeat when the English came and saved them. The English sent troops to defend the Mohegan fort at Shantok.
When the English threatened to invade Narragansett territory, Canonicus and his son Mixanno signed a peace treaty. The peace lasted for the next 30 years, but land encroachment by the growing colonial population gradually began to erode any accords between natives and settlers.As missionaries began to convert tribal members, many natives feared they would lose their traditions by assimilating into colonial culture.
The colonial push for religious conversion collided with native resistance to assimilation. In 1675, John Sassamon, a converted "Praying Indian", was found bludgeoned to death in a pond. Facts about Sassamon's death were never settled. Historians accept that Metacomet, the Wampanoag sachem, may have ordered the execution of Sassamon because of his cooperation with colonial authorities despite the growing discontent among Wampanoag.
Three Wampanoag men were arrested, convicted, and hanged for Sassamon's death. Roger Williams and the Narragansetts - a 19th-century engraving, after a painting by A. H. WrayMetacomet subsequently declared war on the colonists, in what the English called King Philip's War.
After Metacomet escaped an attempt to trap him in the Plymouth Colony, the uprising spread across Massachusetts as other bands, such as the Nipmuc, joined the fight. The Native Americans wanted to expel the English from New England. They waged successful attacks on settlements in Massachusetts and Connecticut, but Rhode Island was spared at the beginning as the Narragansett remained officially neutral.The leaders of the United Colonies (Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Connecticut) accused the Narragansett of harboring Wampanoag refugees.
They made a preemptive attack on the Narragansett palisade fortress in Rhode Island on December 19, 1675, in a battle that became known by the colonists as the Great Swamp Fight. Hundreds of Narragansett old men, women, and children perished in the colonists' attack and burning of the fort, but nearly all their warriors escaped. In January 1676, the English colonist Joshua Tefft was hanged, drawn and quartered at Smith's Castle in Wickford, Rhode Island. He had fought on the side of the Narragansett during the Great Swamp Fight and was considered a traitor.
The Indians retaliated in a widespread spring offensive beginning in February 1676, in which they destroyed all English settlements on the western side of Narragansett Bay. They burned Providence on March 27, 1676, destroying Roger Williams' house, among others. Across New England, Indians destroyed many towns, and the attackers raided the suburbs of Boston. In spite of waging a successful campaign against the colonists, by the end of March, disease, starvation, battle loses, and the lack of gunpowder caused the Indian effort to collapse.Raiding parties from Connecticut composed of the colonists and Indian allies, such as the Pequot and Mohegan, swept into Rhode Island and killed substantial numbers of the now-weakened Narragansett.
A mixed force of Mohegan and Connecticut militia captured Canonchet, the chief sachem of the Narragansett, a few days after the destruction of Providence and delivered him to Connecticut authorities. When told he was to die, he replied, "I like it well that I should die before my heart has grown soft and I have said anything unworthy of myself."[citation needed]He asked to be executed by Uncas, chief sachem of the Mohegan. Uncas and two Pequot sachems closest to Canonchet's rank among his captors executed him in Indian style.
The English treated Canonchet as a traitor, and had his body drawn and quartered. A mixed force of Plymouth militia and Wampanoag hunted down Metacomet. He was shot and killed by Alderman, who had earlier served with him. The war ended in southern New England, although in Maine it dragged on for another year.After the war, the English sold some surviving Narragansett into slavery and shipped them to the Caribbean; others became indentured servants in Rhode Island.
The surviving Narragansett merged with local tribes, particularly the Eastern Niantic. During colonial and later times, tribe members intermarried with Europeans, Africans, and African-Americans. Their spouses and children were taken into the tribe, enabling them to keep a tribal and Native American cultural identity.
In the 19th century, the tribe resisted repeated state efforts to declare it no longer an Indian tribe because its members were multi-racial. They contended that they absorbed other ethnicities into their tribe and continued to identify as Narragansett.The tribal leaders resisted increasing legislative pressure after the American Civil War to "take up citizenship" in the United States, which would have required them to give up their treaty privileges and Indian nation status. While testifying about the issue to the state legislature, a Narragansett spokesman said that his people saw injustices under existing US citizenship. He noted Jim Crow laws that limited the rights of blacks despite their citizenship under constitutional amendments. They also resisted suggestions that multiracial members could not qualify as Narragansett. The Narragansett had a tradition of bringing other people into their tribe by marriage, and having them assimilate as culturally Narragansett, especially as their children grew up in the tribe.
We are not negroes, we are the heirs of Ninagrit, and of the great chiefs and warriors of the Narragansetts. Because, when your ancestors stole the negro from Africa and brought him amongst us and made a slave of him, we extended him the hand of friendship, and permitted his blood to be mingled with ours, are we to be called negroes? And to be told that we may be made negro citizens? We claim that while one drop of Indian blood remains in our veins, we are entitled to the rights and privileges guaranteed by your ancestors to ours by solemn treaty, which without a breach of faith you cannot violate.[13]The Narragansett Indians had a vision of themselves as "a nation rather than a race", and it was a multiracial nation. They insisted on their rights to Indian national status and its privileges by treaty.
From 1880-1884, the state persisted in its efforts at "detribalization". While the tribe agreed to negotiations for sale of its land, it quickly regretted the decision, and worked to regain the land. In 1880 the state recognized 324 Narragansett tribal members as claimants to the land during negotiations. Although the state put tribal lands up for public sale in the 19th century, the tribe did not disperse and its members continued to practice its culture. In January 1975, the Narragansett Tribe filed suit in federal court to regain 3,200 acres (12.9 km2) of aboriginal land in southern Rhode Island, which they claimed the state had illegally taken from them in 1880.
The 1880 Act's authorizing the state to negotiate with the tribe listed 324 Narragansett approved by the Supreme Court as claimants to the land.[15]In 1978 the Narragansett Tribe signed a Joint Memorandum of Understanding (JMOU) with the state of Rhode Island, Town of Charlestown, and private property owners in settlement of their land claim. A total of 1,800 acres (7.3 km2) was transferred to a corporation formed to hold the land in trust for descendants of the 1880 Narragansett Roll, in exchange for the tribe agreeing that, except for hunting and fishing, the laws of Rhode Island would be in effect on those lands. The Narragansett had not yet been federally recognized as a tribe.
King Philip's War and the Great Swamp Massacre In 1675, the Narragansett allied themselves with King Philip and the Wampanoag Sachem, to support the Wampanoag Tribe's efforts to reclaim land in Massachusetts.
In the Great Swamp Massacre, a military force of Puritans from Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, and Connecticut massacred a group of Narragansett, mostly women, children, and elderly men living at an Indian winter camp in the Great Swamp located in present day South Kingstown.
Following the massacre, many of the remaining Narragansett retreated deep into the forest and swamp lands in the southern area of the State. (Much of this area now makes up today's Reservation).
Many who refused to be subjected to the authority of the United Colonies left the area or were hunted down and killed. Some were sold into slavery in the Caribbean, others migrated to upstate New York and many went to Brotherton, Wisconsin.
The tribe prepared extensive documentation of its genealogy and proof of continuity as descendants of the 324 tribal members of treaty status. In 1979 the tribe applied for federal recognition, which it finally regained in 1983 as the Narragansett Indian Tribe of Rhode Island (the official name used by the Bureau of Indian Affairs).
The state and tribe have disagreed on certain rights on the reservation. On July 14, 2003, Rhode Island state police raided a tribe-run smoke shop on the Charlestown reservation, the culmination of a dispute over the tribe's failure to pay state taxes on its sale of cigarettes.
In 2005 the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals declared the police action a violation of the tribe's sovereignty. In 2006, an en banc decision of the First Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the prior decision, stating the raid did not violate the tribe's sovereign immunity because of the 1978 Joint Memorandum of Agreement settling the land issues, in which the tribe agreed that state law would be observed on its land.In a separate federal civil rights lawsuit, the tribe charged the police with the use of excessive force during the 2003 raid on the smoke shop. One Narragansett man suffered a broken leg in the confrontation. The case was being retried in the summer of 2008. Competing police experts testified on each side of the case.
The Narragansett Tribe is negotiating with the General Assembly for approval to build a casino in Rhode Island with their partner, currently Harrah's Entertainment. The Rhode Island Constitution declares all non-state-run lotteries or gambling illegal. A proposed constitutional amendment to allow the tribe to build the casino was voted down by state residents in November 2006.The tribe has plans to upgrade the Longhouse along RI Route 2 (South County Trail) as a place of indigenous American cuisine and cultural meeting house. These plans have been in the works for well over 15 years. Originally built in 1940, the Longhouse has fallen into disrepair. Upgrades for Narragansett Indian tribal medical, technological, and artistic systems are also being planned.
The late 20th and 21st century have brought new questions of Native American identity. Like numerous other tribes, the Narragansett have recently undertaken efforts to review tribal rolls and reassess applications for membership. They currently require tribal members to show direct descent from one or more of the 324 members listed on the 1880-1884 Roll, which was established when Rhode Island negotiated land sales.
The current population numbers about 2400, and the tribe has closed the rolls. They have dropped some people from the rolls and denied new applications for membership. Scholars and activists see this as a national trend among tribes, prompted by a variety of factors, including internal family rivalries and the issue of significant new revenues from Indian casinos. The US Supreme Court agreed to hear Carcieri v. Salazar (2009), a case determining Native American land rights, in the fall of 2008. The Court ruled in favor of Rhode Island in February 2009.
The suit was brought by the state of Rhode Island against the Department of Interior (DOI) over its authority to take land into trust on behalf of certain American Indians. While the authority was part of the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act, the state argued that the process could not hold for tribes that achieved federal recognition after 1934. Based on language in the act, The US Supreme Court upheld the state.
At issue is 31 acres (125,000 m2) of land in Charlestown which the Narrangansett purchased in 1991. After trying to develop it for elderly housing under state regulations, in 1998 they requested the DOI to take it into trust on their behalf to remove it from state and local control.
The Narragansett operate the Tomaquag Indian Memorial Museum in Exeter, Rhode Island. They also operate the Nuweetooun School at the museum, exclusively for the Narragansett children. The Narragansett Tribe also hosts their annual August Meeting Powwow, which takes place the 2nd weekend of August every year, on their reservation in Charlestown, Rhode Island. It is a gathering of thanksgiving and honor to the Narragansett people, and is the oldest recorded powwow in North America, dating back to 1675. (Earliest colonial documentation of the gathering, since the powwow, most certainly, had already been centuries old prior to European contact).
Living in Balance
The Narragansett people believe that they have inhabited the area now known as Rhode Island for over 30,000 years, coming originally from the seas, and made by the Creator, “Kautantowit”, along with all other living things. Every day begins with giving thanks to the Creator, whether there is rain or shine. Most people have a particular tree they go to forprayer, and they will leave a prayer bundle, or ties of sacred red cloth as an offering.
The Narragansett have always believed strongly in living in balance with the Earth, respecting all living things, including plants, stones, and all the Earth’s creatures. The Creator gave the people everything they needed, and with their resources and skills, they were architects, doctors, astronomers, scientists, and engineers, although they were not given recognition as such when the Europeans came.
Some Narragansett joke that they were the original “yuppies,” living on the Atlantic coast in the summer and inland in the winter. Traditionally, they have thrived on seafood, potatoes, onions, squash, beans and corn. It is believed that Crow brought corn from the Southwest, and told the people to mix it with beans, creating succotash, a Narragansett staple. Traditionally, women have a strong place in society, owning the developed land and dwellings, and often becoming “sachems” (hereditary leaders) and warriors. Women always walked behind the men, not in subordination, but to tell them where to go.
Stolen Lands
Over 35,000 strong in the early 1600s (along with their allies, the Niantics), their hospitality and knowledge were crucial to the survival of the first colonists. But over the next several hundred years, the tribe was nearly decimated by massacres and diseases brought over by the settlers, such as small pox and the common cold. The Narragansett believed in peace, but were forced to continuously fight the settlers to protect themselves and their villages, gardens and homes.
In 1880, the state of Rhode Island illegally detribalized the Narragansett, terminating the tribe “on paper.” The Narragansett lost their remaining 3200 acres of land, leaving them with only a church on a scarce two acres. For the past 300 years, the surviving ancestors have struggled to maintain tribal identity and regain the stolen land. Fortunately, because the church remained on those two acres for hundreds of years, the tribe could prove its continuous existence. The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 re-established the Narragansett as a distinct people, yet they were still unable to win back their land. A lengthy lawsuit in 1978 ultimately resulted in the return of about 2000 acres. The tribe finally achieved federal recognition in 1983.
The tribal rolls currently list over 2,400 members, though there are more Narragansett people not officially on the rolls. Each summer, many people congregate on the reservation for the August Meeting, a religious and historical occasion, which includes dancing, drumming, singing, feasting and games.
The great Ninigret, a sachem during the 1600s and a friend of Rhode Island founder Roger Williams, is Thomas’s seventh great-grandfather; his second great-grandfather, Ben Thomas, sat on the tribal council — the governing entity that works closely with the chief on tribal issues — in the late 1800s when the Narragansett tribe was stripped of all but three acres of land.
“My father was a World War II veteran, and he was the law,” Thomas says. “If he said to be home at five for dinner, you better be there or you didn’t eat. And if we got out of line, we got thumped.”
The Narragansett Indians live in present day Rhode Island which has allowed them to utilize the area’s natural resources. The environmental factors of the land have allowed the Narragansett Indians to use to their advantage the coast, the forest, and the river in order to provide them with food and clothing (Simmons 193). To the Europeans, the Narragansett tribe was a distinguished Native tribe because of their culture, their industry in trade and by their manufacture of certain items. At first, the interactions between the Europeans and Narragansetts were positive because of the high demand for trade. Trading between the Europeans and Natives became the norm of the New England society. English settlers became very dependent on Natives for the goods they provided. The growing population of the English Puritans began to threaten the Narragansett community because of Europeans imposing their system of beliefs onto the natives. With the arrival of the Puritans, they brought with them a distinct English culture which from the beginning clashed with the Natives way of life. With their strong Protestant beliefs and their desire to spread their beliefs, the Narragansett Indians had no choice but to fight to retain their land and way of life.
An influential person who helped the Narragansett Indians was Roger Williams. Williams became intimately acquainted with the Narragansett tribe and was a strong believer of coexistence between Europeans and Natives. Williams had spent some time with the Narragansett Indians and through his time wrote a book entitled A Key Into the Language of America. Throughout the book Williams stresses his critics of the failures of New England society and develops his theory of Native and European traditions coexisting peacefully with each other (Davis 597). Williams was disappointed with the English and their mistreatment of Natives and their land. Williams was forced to leave Massachusetts and doing so he ventured to the Narragansett community where he was accepted openly and founded Providence, Rhode Island. The new ideas in which Williams presented had allowed the Narragansett Indians and English to coexist in the newly founded society. It was the Puritans who disagreed with Williams and were unable to respect boundaries. The conflicts between the Puritans and the Natives was growing stronger and it became inevitable that it would lead to an unwanted war.
The King’s Philip War was a result of the English settlers wanting to stop Natives from attempting to overthrow the English settlement. The war was based on Europeans and Natives fighting for land which they both thought rightfully was theirs. The ongoing conflict between the Europeans and Natives resulted in the Narragansett tribe fighting against their own people. Prior to the war, the English had formed many allies with Native tribes surrounding the Narragansett Bay area. King Philip (known as by the English) or Metacome (his Native name) had become upset with the choices Native communities were making to side with the English. Metacome believed that the Native’s way of life had become too integrated with English policies and beliefs. Metacome wanted Native communities to only be subjects to their own political rulers (Carpenter 193). The war was a conflict between the English and their Native allies against King Philip and his Native allies. From the beginning of the war, the Narragansett community remained neutral on the account of Williams. Williams had promised protection to their society if they remained neutral. The attempt of the Narragansett Indians to remain neutral only lasted until the English demanded that the Narragansett Indians accept certain obligations. The refusal of the Narragansett resulted in them being drawn into the King Philip’s War. The English thus assembled a force which violated all aspects of the Rhode Island Constitution and attacked the tribe and destroyed their community. The Narragansett Indians had lost all trust in the English and had return to reinstate their lost community. The King Philip’s War destroyed lives and homes of both the English and the Natives. It had also destroyed all hope for coexistence between the two.
The aftermath of the King Philip’s War had changed both the English and Narragansett societies. The English became the prominent player in the New England society. The Narragansett were slowing losing their rights and their land. The relations between both societies was based on distrust and the desire to achieve more land. This is a main reason as to why the Puritans and Narragansett Indians were unable to coexist. The Narragansett thought nothing less or more of the Puritans and were willing to work with them when needed. The Puritans were determined to abolish Native traditions and impose their own religious beliefs. They wanted to create a new and different society from England and they were willing to do anything to achieve their goal. The Puritans made it difficult for the Narragansett Indians to live peacefully because their land and status was unrightfully taken away from them.
The study of the Narragansett tribe contributes to the history of New England because it demonstrates the influence the English had on the development of the region. The interactions have showed us the failures and successes of English-Native relations. Since the arrival of the English, the Narragansett tribe have remained strong and have overcome the obstacles which the English settlers presented. Today, they remain an important tribe because throughout their existence they have always fought for their people and have done what was right for their community.
Archaeological evidence places Narragansett peoples in the region that later became the colony and state of Rhode Island more than 30,000 years ago!
They inhabited the area along Narragansett Bay from present-day Warwick to South Kingstown and were the largest of a number of native tribes living in the area.
In 1524, the Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano encountered a large Native American population living near Narragansett Bay, hunting and practicing agriculture and organized into systems under “kings.”
the Narragansett divided themselves into eight divisions, each ruled by a territorial chief; these chiefs were then subject to a head chief or sachem. For subsistence, the Narragansett depended on the cultivation of corn (maize), hunting, and fishing. Members of the tribe were also known for their prowess as warriors, offering protection to smaller tribes (such as the Niantic, Wampanoagand Manisseans) who in turn paid tribute to them.
in 1636, a Boston trader was murdered on Block Island (off the shore of southern Rhode Island). The culprit was presumed to be a member of the Pequot tribe, who had earlier challenged the Narragansett for control over an area of land. Though the Pequots had been living peacefully alongside the colonists of Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut, tensions had been building, and this incident proved to be the breaking point. After Massachusetts authorities sent a punitive expedition against the Pequot, the tribe mounted a fierce defense of their homeland. The so-called Pequot War reached its peak when warriors from the Mohegan and Narragansett tribes joined English settlers under Captain John Mason in mounting a surprise attack on the main Pequot fort at Mystic, Connecticut. Some 500-600 inhabitants of the fort were burned alive or killed; the attack devastated the Pequot, who fled the fort in smaller groups, many of which were killed or captured and sold into slavery or placed under the control of other tribes, including the Narragansett.
Population of Narragansett was probably more than 10,000 in 1610, but by 1674 this had dropped to 5,000. The Narragansett lost almost 20% of their population in a single battle with the English in December of 1675. Massacre and starvation soon killed most of the others. By 1682 less than 500 Narragansett remained. They were allowed to settle with the Eastern Niantic on a reservation at Charlestown, Rhode Island. Though increasingly racially intermixed, the Narragansett have been able to maintain their reservation, organization and population through the years. Federally recognized since 1983, the Narragansett tribal rolls currently list over 2,400 members, most of whom still reside in Rhode Island.
Potok, a famous Narragansett Chief, notorious for the stand he took against the promulgation of religion among that nation. When the war began with Philip, the Narragansetts were thought to be inclining to him, and the army was ordered to Pettyquamscot to fight or negotiate with them according as they were disposed.
After some parleying, a treaty was agreed upon, at great length; to which no attention seems to have been paid, and may be supposed, no great judgment was required to foresee. At this negotiation with the English, Potok was a conspicuous chief, although little or nothing is said of him in the printed accounts; nor does it appear that he acquiesced in it, from the fact that his name is not to the treaty.
It has been said that at these talks, Potok "urged that the English should not send any among them to preach the gospel, or call upon them to pray to God, But the English refusing to concede to such an article, it was withdrawn." Yet no such article is printed in this treaty. If it really were the case, that the English refused to concede without such an article, even in that enlightened day, we need no better comment upon it than we find in a manuscript letter ofRoger Williams (1654) as follows: "At my last departure for England, I was importuned by ye Narraganset Sachems, and especially by Nenecunat, to present their petition to the high Sachems of England, that they might not be forced from their religion; and for not changing their religion be invaded by war. For they said they were daily visited with threatenings by Indians, that came from about the Massachusetts; that if they would not pray, they should be destroyed by war." And again, in the same letter: "Are not all the English of this land, (generally) a persecuted people from their native soil? and hath not the God of peace and father of mercies made the natives more friendly in this than [in] our native countrymen in our own land to us? have they not entred leagues of love, and to this day continued peaceable commerce with us? are not our families grown up in peace amongst them? Upon which I humbly ask how it can suit with Christian ingenuity, to take hold of some seeming occasions for their destruction."
We are able to fix the place of his residence in the vicinity of Point Judith. Our earliest notice of Potok is in 1661. In this year he with several other chiefs, complained to the court of Massachusetts, that "Samuel Wildbow and others of his companie," claimed jurisdiction at Point Judith, in their country, and lands adjacent. They came on and possessed themselves forcibly, bringing their cattle and other effects with them. What order the court took upon it does not appear. About the close of Philip's War, Potok came voluntarily to Rhode Island, no doubt with the view of making friends again with his enemies; but was sent to Boston, where, after answering all their inquiries, he was put to death without ceremony.
— Indian Biography, by Samuel G. Drake, 1832