Saturday, September 30, 2017

Meaningful Boulders

Earlier this month I was able to visit a recently placed boulder commemorating the nearby burial location of the Wampanoag Massasoit, 8sameeqan (Yellow Feather), at Burr's Hill Park in Warren, Rhode Island.
A closer look at the inscription...
 
It seems the question of where Massasoit's remains were buried has finally been resolved as well as where Massasoit's village, Sowams, was actually located. 

Apparently, the original burial site was ripped asunder when a railroad connecting Providence and Bristol was built in the mid 1800s.  According to an article found on RhodyBeat more than 600 funerary objects were removed from the burial ground over many years.  It took 20 years of tedious work by the Wampanoag Tribe to track the objects to the many different museums where they had ended up. Many of those objects have now been returned to the tribe, and this past May were reinterred.


Previously I'd visited other boulders commemorating the final resting place of two other Native American leaders who lived during the contact period and were contemporaries of Massasoit.  One in Tyngsborough, MA marks the grave of Wannalancet, the last Pennacook sachem...


The other is in Hamilton, MA and marks the grave of Masconomet, Sagamore of the Agawam...
 
 
This boulder and an adjacent (even older) stone appear to have been in place for many years with numerous offerings placed about them...

 
 
All of these markers are tastefully done and show great reverence. 


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