The Best View in Town - Raymond Two Hawks Watson

The Best View in Town - Raymond Two Hawks Watson

The view from Satamachut is always nice. This past Saturday was the first time taking my daughter to visit those lands. She was excited to go. She’s always excited to learn about her heritage when we visit locations and I start spouting off. I always feel blessed to be in a capacity to teach her about her heritage in these lands.

From Satamachut you can see the entire downtown Providence to the east, and several other high points throughout the region when you look in other directions. Contemporarily this space is called “Stone Mountain”, which is the English translation of Satamachut. Considering what a great vantage point Satamachut is, I’m immediately reminded of why my ancestors chose this location as a place for the Sachem and Sagmores to meet to discuss the business of the Nation in pre-colonial times. You can clearly see any potential threats approaching as the location sits snuggly in the middle of the Narragansett territories of the north. Satamachut is also not far from Neutoconkanut, which is one of the original boundaries of the settlement of Providence.

A couple of weeks ago, accompanied by the Sagamore and the Sachem of the Pokanoket, Mashapaug Nahaganset citizens walked the various trails of Neutoconkanut, examining the landscape and reflecting on how the area would traditionally have been utilized. Once in the area, it becomes very apparent why my ancestors developed a village there. Neutonckanut sits atop a hill overlooking the cove and the bay, has plenty of wooded hunting lands and access to freshwater, and serves as a prime location for protecting against and sending notice about any threats arising from the north, the east, and from the water. From a particular point at Neutoconkanut you can also see where Miantinomi directed Roger Williams to originally settle.  It’s across the Moshassuck River, in Pokanoket territory, and the politics behind it are quite complex.

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Moshassuck is a key location in the progression of English colonization of the Americas. Examining the early maps, you see that Roger Williams settled Providence on the east side of the Moshassuck (https://www.nps.gov/rowi/learn/historyculture/foundingprovidence.htm). Miantinomi was instructed by Canonicus to give Roger Williams boundaries for usage to allay threats from the Narragansett Sagamores from Pawtuxet (Cranston), Neutoconkanut (Providence/Johnston), and Mashapaug (Providence/Cranston). The Sagamores were threatening to attack Williams and his companions for continually trespassing in their territories. Williams was originally escorted from Pokanoket territory into Narragansett territory under the protection of the Massasoit after Governor Winslow of Plymouth determined that Williams could not settle in present day East Providence. In this context, Miantinomi directed Williams to settle back on the east side of the Moshassuck, in Pokanoket territory.

The decision to direct Williams to Pokanoket territory was arguably in response to the Massasoit’s 1621 treaty with Plymouth colony. Prior to the treaty, the Pokanoket were in a position of tribute to the Narragansett due to the diminishment of Pokanoket forces by European diseases. (https://www.worldhistory.org/Pilgrim-Wampanoag_Peace_Treaty/). Recognizing the potential to regain the status and authority the Pokanoket held prior to the great dying, the Massasoit formalized a treaty with Governor John Carver of the Plymouth Colony on March 22, 1621. In 1622 Canonicus challenged the newly established relationship by sending a bundle of arrows tied with a snakeskin to William Bradford as a threatening message; but Canonicus’ threat was to no avail. (https://nativenortheastportal.com/bio/bibliography/canonicus-i-1647).

Fast forward to 1638, and the puzzle pieces can be neatly fit together. Williams is an adversary of Plymouth colony, but a friend of Canonicus, who needs land to use. The Narragansett Sagamores don’t want Williams and his companions in Narragansett territories. Despite the 1621 treaty, Canonicus and Miantinomi consider the Pokanoket under Narragansett tribute and accordingly feel entitled to make decisions about Pokanoket territories. Williams has agreed to provide the Narragansett with access to English goods in exchange for use of the lands. The relationship with Williams presents an ideal opportunity to requite the Pokanoket and Plymouth for the relationship they formalized in 1621. These factors considered, from Miantinomi’s perspective, sending Williams back into Pokanoket territory made sense . . . and that’s exactly what Miantinomi did.

As stated, the politics between the indigenous nations during Euroepan contact were quite complex and are as meritorious of study as the interactions between the English colonies during the same time.

That’s why I’m a student of the subject matter. That’s why I think more Rhode Islanders need to be informed about it.

That’s why it was nice to take my daughter to see the view from Satamachut this past Saturday. It was her first time visiting those lands, and she was excited to go. She’s always excited to learn about her heritage when we visit locations and I start spouting off. I always feel blessed to be in a capacity to teach her about her people’s heritage in these lands. God is good.

 

That’s my three cents.

 

Raymond Two Hawks