Brown transfers land in Bristol to preservation trust established by Pokanoket tribe

Some justice, however delayed

Brown University

Brown University has transferred ownership of a portion of its land in Bristol, Rhode Island, to a preservation trust established by the Pokanoket Indian Tribe, ensuring that access to the land and waters extends to tribes and Native peoples of the region for whom the land has significance.

Since its donation to Brown in 1955, the University’s approximately 375-acre Mount Hope property has been home to its Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology collections and an outing center used for educational programs and field research. 

As the ancestral home of Metacom, known also as King Philip — the leader of the Pokanoket people — and the site of his 1676 death during King Philip’s War, the land holds great historical and cultural significance to members of many Native and Indigenous communities.

The transfer, which was finalized on Friday, Nov. 15, fulfills in part a pledge made in a 2017 agreement between the University and the Pokanoket tribe. Brown committed then to the orderly transfer of a to-be-determined amount of land into a preservation trust to ensure appropriate stewardship of the unique historical, sacred and natural resource for generations to come.

Russell Carey, executive vice president for planning and policy at Brown, said the University’s goal has been and remains the preservation of the land along with sustainable access by Native tribes with ties to its historic sites.

“The 1955 letter from the Haffenreffer Family upon the donation of the Mount Hope property to the University noted that the family felt ‘sure that the Trustees of an institution like Brown will not be unmindful of the property’s great natural beauty, its historical background or the best interests of the Bristol community,’” 

Carey said. “Those words remain as true and relevant today as when they were written nearly 70 years ago, and the steps we are taking to preserve the land in perpetuity are, we believe, fully consistent with that vision.”

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 transfer follows a comprehensive process to determine the amount and boundaries of the land to be placed in the preservation trust. As part of an agreement with Pokanoket tribe members who encamped that property in 2017, Brown commissioned the Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc. to conduct a tribal cultural sensitivity assessment, which recommended that a portion of the Bristol land comprising approximately 255 acres should be considered a traditional cultural property given specific sites and features of significance and, accordingly, conserved in perpetuity.

The Nov. 15 transfer marks the first of two transactions to formally convey those 255 acres to the preservation trust, and includes the vast majority of that land. Brown is in the process of preparing to move its Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology collections from the Bristol land to Providence, and the University will retain ownership and control of the parcels where the research collection is held and associated support buildings (museum, barn and outing center) until the collection is fully relocated. Phase two of the conveyance to the trust will take place when that process is complete. Carey said the University expects to begin moving the museum collection in Fall 2025 — and while schedules could shift due to the uncertainties of moving thousands of objects, Brown anticipates fully vacating the facilities the museum and collection occupy on the Mount Hope property by summer 2026.

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.

“The sale of these parcels, which we expect to be finalized early in 2025, to the Town of Bristol for preservation and conservation will ensure that no development occurs on them and further protects and buffers the land being placed in the preservation trust,” Carey said.