Dr. avid Weed, Coordinator of the Sowams Heritage Area Project, spoke to an audience of about 50 people at the Warren Senior Center on the topic of “Rediscovering the 17th Century in the Sowams Heritage Area” on March 9, 2023. Click here for a 52-minute video of the presentation.

(Above) Center Director Betty Hoague introduced Dr. Weed to an audience that consisted mainly of people who live or have grown up in Warren, many of whom were familiar with some of the locations that he described as being from the 17th century.

(Above) Dr. Weed began by describing how Burr’s Hill looked before it was made into a park in 1924, with high sand dunes overlooking the Warren River. He also pointed out the location of a fence along Market Street that once separated colonial land from Pokanoket land. Today, a sign stating the Land Acknowledgement that the Town adopted in 2019 recognizing the Pokanokets sits in front of Town Hall.

(Above, left) Dr. Weed pointed out rock features used by the Pokanokets at Sachem’s knoll and King’s Rock on Market Street at the Swansea town line and rocks behind Swansea Town Hall, at Mt. Hope in Bristol, and at the top of Neutaconkanut Hill in Providence. (Above, center) Over the 1600s, land was transferred from Indigenous control to colonial English domination (click on map for a larger view). (Above, right) Pilgrim Edward Winslow visited the Massasoit Ousamequin in what is today Warren when the Massasoit appeared to be dying from an unknown illness, and Winslow was able to help him recover.