By in Rhode Island's Future
Block Island - another place where European settlers slaughtered local Native American people |
in the Washington Post speculated a few days ago that Block Island might
be a candidate for renaming in the wake President Obama’s
executive decision to revert the name of Mt. McKinley back to the Native American name Denali. As Kirkpatrick explains it:
“For thousands of years, Native
Americans called this pear-shaped island in southern Rhode Island ‘Manisses‘ (‘Island of the Little God,’)
until it was visited in 1614 by Dutch explorer Adriaen Block, who renamed it after himself.
Block? Have you ever heard of him?”
Boston.com elaborated somewhat on the history,
saying, “War soon broke out between native groups and colonists,” and suggested
that, “Given Block’s legacy, maybe the island, as the Post suggests,
deserves its old name back.”
I called Blake Filippi, the independent Representative
whose district includes includes all of Block Island (as well as Charlestown
and portions of Westerly and South Kingstown,) what he thought of the idea.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Filippi holds the view that the federal government has no powers other than those expressly written in the US Constitution and is part of the "Tenther Movement." Tenthers believe that states have the right to "nullification" - to declare null and void any federal action that does not appear in the Constitution. That philosophy led to the Civil War and was effectively ended when the South lost to the North.
Filippi also corrected my pronunciation
of “Manisses” which is properly “Man-uh-sees” and doesn’t rhyme with “missus.”
I placed a second call to Nancy Dodge, town manager of New Shoreham, located on Block Island. I asked her
if the residents of Block island were open to the idea of changing the name
from “Block island” to Manisses.
“I don’t sense a groundswell of activity
on this,” said Dodge, adding that such a change didn’t seem likely.
Steve Ahlquist is a
writer, artist and current president of the Humanists of Rhode Island, a
non-profit group dedicated to reason, compassion, optimism, courage and action.
The views expressed are his own and not necessarily those of any organization
of which he is a member. atomicsteve@gmail.com
Twitter: @SteveAhlquist
Twitter: @SteveAhlquist