Providence 375 Essay Series

Providence's Original Inhabitants

by Dr. Ella Wilcox Sekatau
Dr. Ella Wilcox Sekatau is an ethno-historian, language teacher, genealogist and tribal medicine woman.

The people who have become known as the Narragansett Indians were a great nation governed under the auspices of royal Sachems from the Pautuxett, Nehantic (east and west), Sekonett, Pocasett and Narragansett groups. These were the territorial boundaries of what became known as Southern New England, South Eastern Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York states.

Narragansett Indian village reconstructed for the 300th anniversary of Rhode Island's founding.

The civilization of the people was governed by the thirteen (13) twenty eight (28) day moon cycles, four seasons, the eight winds and eight directions, the tides and their strong faith in spiritual practices and beliefs. Settlement locations were usually determined by geographical areas of land elevation, seasonal weather conditions, the availability of food sources and the raw products used to construct or fashion shelter, tools, weapons, utensils, decorations and clothing. Seven months were devoted and spent preparing survival materials for the six months of late fall, winter and early spring from the plentiful and abundant natural resources on land and from the sweet and salt waters. Hunting and fishing, trapping in and around fresh water springs, brooks, ponds, rivers and the many salt water marshes coves, bays, inlets and open seas along the coast and numerous islands were all resources for a millennia of human uses.

In these particular areas in the hill and dale and coastal settings there were aquatic mammals, the canines, the felines and the bovines. Every fresh water stream which ran into the salt water were places where the Atlantic salmon, shad, and smelts, eels, and other fish came to spawn depending on their migratory habits during the seasons. There are still small favored places where quahogs, clams oysters, scallop, muscles and cocks can be found.

From late spring through summer and early fall most individual or family dwellings were usually class to salt water areas. The dwellings were round or slightly oblong called a wetu. Women were in charge of the living space and nearby horticultural area for the growing of maize, beans, sunflowers, squash, pumpkins, cucumbers and melons. The men maintained the planting of the tobacco crop. Village shelters were not one very close to one another, mostly a quarter to a half mile apart to allow places to gather wood, green vegetables to grow, and small animals and birds to live. All garden areas were surrounded by brush fences at least eight feet high to keep out deer, moose, and bear. All family groups had dogs. The garden areas had a corn watch.

Roger Williams with Wampanoag Indians who have him shelter during the winter of 1635-36.

The winter or permanent homes were longhouses sometimes big enough to hold 15 or 16 family groups, all related on the female side. When a couple got married they went to live with the female partner's family. The men built fences and palisades 16 to18 feet high around the long house areas to keep out animals and break the force of winter winds. This structure usually had one entrance.

Unlike the Europeans and other countries of the world, the Narragansett people as well as other Indians treated women and men equally and both were regarded and respected as such. Each had their respective responsibilities, jobs, duties, and needs. The women were responsible for the care of the children with the help of elders. They were in charge of the homes and gardens. The men were responsible for protecting specific sites, hunting, fishing, building the frames for summer and winter dwellings, trapping, trading, dug out and tree bark canoe making, also harvesting tree bark for mat making and constructing the longhouse outer house covering. Everyone did tanning.

The forest high and low ground was filled with five kinds of oak trees, two types of chestnut as well as maples, red and white cedars, hemlock, larch, birches, butternut, three varieties of walnuts, mulberry, elm, red and white pine, knotty pine, fir, crab and swamp apples plus the willows, shad berry and low bush shrub. Bush plants such as blueberry, huckleberry, and choke cherry and on the ground strawberry and briar berries were plentiful.

The 1638 deed signed by Roger Williams and sachems of the Narragansett Indian tribe.

The main fowl populations and migrations included turkeys, geese, ducks, and pigeons by the millions in addition to doves and cranes. The woods were alive with small songbirds like the thrush, sparrow and so many others fowl including the hawks, owls and eagles. There were plentiful clay banks along the fresh water streams for pottery making. Plants like milkweed, Indian hemp, dog bane, cedar root and bark for twine and string making, favored bulrush, white and brown ash, sweet grass, and cane were plentiful for basket and mat making as were the different sized cat tails.

Copper was not widely available but the Narragansetts had a thriving business trading smoked and dried shellfish as well as the shell for wampum money making. The much-treasured copper came from trading with tribes around the Great Lakes areas.
Trades existed north to Alaska, south to the West Indies, South America, and to the West Coast, proven by jewelry and stone artifacts found in camp and burial sites from Mexico, Central and South America and west to the Pacific coastal region.

Different plants, flowers and tree barks were used for mats, medicine making and paints for body and other decoration. No communicable diseases, venereal diseases or tuberculosis existed. All foods that were gathered or raised or hunted, trapped or fished were dried or smoked or a combination of both whether animal, plant, fish shellfish or fowl so diets could be about the same during all seasons. Foods and seeds for next year's planting were stored in ground pits below the frost level where the earth remains a constant 50 to 55 degrees. Hollowed out huge tree stumps were buried in gravel pits with one end permanently sealed with the other end opened where passage could be gained. Gravel does not freeze.

School for the children was a Show and Tell, Show and Try, Oral Repetition. There was sign language, body language for clarity as well as painted pictorial messages on skin, tree bark, stones and rocks. The indigenous natives also used vibrant colors for painting of parts of the body exposed to sun, wind and cold. These were the daily habits, religious beliefs, social make up, and cultural traditions of the Narragansett Indian Nation who occupied the area we know as Providence.