Land Acknowledgement Ceremony

This event will go on rain or shine! In the event of heavy rain, the program will take place inside the Tyska Barn.

Please join us for a Land Acknowledgment ceremony honoring the land of the Pokanoket tribe that first inhabited the territory in southeastern RI that our 18th-century working farm museum occupies. Doors open at 10:00 a.m. with the ceremony starting shortly after.  Following the ceremony there will be storytelling, drumming, and dancing.  Guests are welcome to stay at the farm until 4 p.m.

For planning purposes and due to space limitations, we request that you pre-register for this event. While there is no admission fee, a cash donation (suggested amount of $10) for the tribe will be taken on-site. Click here to get tickets. 

When the Massasoit Ousamequin (Yellow Feather) first met the Pilgrims in what is now Plymouth, MA in 1621, he was living forty miles to the southwest in an area known as Sowams. These lands and waters have proven to be a bountiful resource for those making this area their home.

In the years that followed, the unsold native land was occupied by colonists, and nearly all of the remaining aboriginal population was either enslaved or moved onto reservations. Over the next 150 years, towns were laid out in what was once Sowams, and nearly all traces of its original inhabitants were erased. What followed were years of continual development, the growth of towns, and the gradual loss of much of the original natural abundance that the colonists first encountered.

While we cannot undo history, we can continue efforts to identify, preserve, and protect the open spaces and water that still remain, to locate places of importance to the Indigenous people, to identify markers that signal the historical transition, and to reduce the unrelenting pace of development that could devour what is left of this beautiful land.
The Land Acknowledgment ceremony at Coggeshall Farm Museum will include:

• Blessings and a land statement by sagamore and sachems of the tribe
• Drumming by the Heartbeat of the Pokanoket
• Dancing
• Storytelling
• A corn husk doll craft

The tribe will have artifacts on display and will be available to answer questions from visitors. A donation to support the tribe is suggested.