Cherokee One Feather Editorial Board
Two weeks before Thanksgiving, Brown University officially transferred 255 acres of its Mount Hope property to a preservation trust established by the Pokanoket Indian Tribe. That sounds great, right? Well, the issue is that, officially, there is no Pokanoket Indian Tribe.
The group is not federally recognized nor recognized by the State of Rhode Island. Furthermore, the Narragansett Indian Tribe, the only federally recognized tribe in Rhode Island, doesn’t recognize them either. The group organized as a nonprofit in 1994 under the name Council of Seven & Royal House of Pokanoket & Pokanoket Tribe & Wampanoag Corporation.
In an article in The Providence Journal in 2017, John Brown, spokesperson for the Narragansett, spoke about the Pokanoket, “Until they are recognized, there is no status. If there were, they would be doing business with the United States government, but they’re not and they can’t.”
Speaking of 2017, it was in that year that Brown University entered into an agreement with the Pokanoket regarding the land transfer. The agreement was signed on Sept. 21, 2017. For a month prior to the signing of the agreement, members of the Pokanoket group camped out in protest on the land.
Brown University said in a press release on Nov. 15, 2024 regarding the land transfer, “Given the significant historical and cultural value of the Mount Hope land to Native peoples in the region, the deed of conveyance for the land transfer – which cannot be amended in the future – states that the Pokanoket ‘shall at all times and in perpetuity provide and maintain access to the lands and waters of the property to all members of all tribes historically part of the Pokanoket Nation/Confederacy, and to all members of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, the Assonet Band of the Wampanoag Nation, the Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe, and the Pocasset Tribe of the Pokanoket Nation’.”
The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) and the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe are both federally recognized tribes. So, why wasn’t the land simply transferred to them?
This sets a very dangerous precedent.
Read this excerpt from Brown’s Nov. 15 press release which states, “In addition to the 255 acres to be transferred to the preservation trust, approximately 120 acres of land along the north and south of Tower Road are separate and apart from the Mount Hope property identified by the Public Archaeology Laboratory in consultation with Pokanoket Tribe representatives as being traditional cultural property. Brown has agreed on the terms of a sale and entered into an agreement with the Town of Bristol to transfer those parcels to the town for preservation and conservation.”
Let’s highlight the issue again – “in consultation with Pokanoket Tribe representatives”.
In an era where federally recognized tribes are fighting and clawing to be at the table in various consultations, it is disheartening to see Brown University make a full agreement with a group that doesn’t have an official claim to being an Indian tribe.
In October 2011, the Cherokee One Feather reported on a list compiled by the Cherokee Nation of 212 fabricated groups fraudulently claiming to be Cherokee tribes. Some of those groups are from areas thousands of miles from traditional Cherokee territory including the Northwest Cherokee Deer Clan in Oregon and the Chewah Cherokee Nation in Manitoba, Canada.
Surely, that number has grown in the past 13 years.
There are three federally recognized Cherokee tribes including the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (N.C.), the Cherokee Nation (Okla.), and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians (Okla.). It is of the utmost importance that the sovereignty of the three real Cherokee tribes be protected and acts like Brown University transferring land to an unrecognized group erode at that sovereignty.
With so many fake groups claiming to be a Cherokee tribe, this could happen in droves to the three real Cherokee tribes and that’s scary.
This is a tricky situation because Brown University is a private institution. So, we’re not sure that this issue can be solved legislatively. But, education could help. This practice cannot continue.
