Burr's Hill

Burr's Hill. Royal Pokanoket Burial Site. , The Sowams Heritage Area includes Barrington, Bristol, East Providence, Providence, and Warren RI, and Rehoboth, Seekonk and Swansea, MA. Sowams means "Southern Area” and was the historic home of the Pokanokets (later described as Wampanoags) and their leader - Massasoit (Great Leader) Osamequin (Yellow Feather) - who first met the Pilgrims in 1621 and ensured their survival., Shaped into high mounds of sand and gravel by Ice Age glaciers, the area known as Burr's Hills provided a place for the Pokanokets to dig graves overlooking the setting sun, where the souls of the dead were thought to reside., Burr’s Hills was purchased in 1854 by The Providence, Warren and Bristol Railroad to build a track from Providence to Bristol (now the East Bay Bike Path). Sand and gravel was used for construction road work until 1921 when the Town purchased the land for a park., In the mid-1800's, centuries-old skeletons were found at Burr's Hills, land once owned by Samuel Burr (1707-1779)., Between 1869 and 1892, The Warren Gazette published reports of discoveries of "Indian relics” in the gravel at Burr's Hills. The Town tried to recover the items, but most remained in private hands., In 1913, Charles Carr, George Hail Library Director and amateur archaeologist, obtained permission to excavate 42 gravesites on the northern side of the land. He found human remains as well as objects that Native People thought would be needed in the next life - wampum, iron tools, ceramic bowls and glass bottles of English and Dutch origin. Carr moved some items to the museum in Warren's library; others went to museums in Bristol and New York., Beginning in 2007, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe petitioned the holders to return the more than 600 items that had been removed from the graves. With Town permission, they were reinterred in a vault in the park in 2017.,

"In one of the graves were found a feather war bonnet, the remains of two fine muskets and a roll of gold lace. All these things indicate the burial place of a man of high rank, and the known fact that the red horseman's coat presented to Massasoit by (Plymouth colonist) Winslow was trimmed with gold lace, leads to the inquiry whether this was the grave of that great chief." , - Virginia Baker, Massosoit of the Wampanoags , painting by Ruth DeWilder-Major

, [Captions:] , Early 20th-century photo looking north on Water Street taken from the top of a sand hill where the parking lot is today., A monument to the Massasoit Osamequin is located ahead in the park., Karen Dionne Art Direction + Design / Warren RI , To learn more about the Pokanoket locations and history, go to SowamsHeritageArea.org., or scan with your smart phone to go to the site.