Running along the edge of the Great Swamp Management Area, the Chipuxet River that empties into Worden’s Pond is more than a singular body of water. It is an essential piece of the ecosystem of the Narragansett Indian Tribe.
The Chipuxet, which in the Narragansett language can mean where a place can separate or break apart, is located within historic Narragansett territory. Like many other rivers surrounding it was, and still is, essential for travel, trade, collecting resources and ceremony, according to Tomaquag Museum Executive Director Lorén M. Spears.
“The Chipuxet River definitely was part of our ecosystem,” Spears said. “We had a village.”
Flowing 8 ½ miles, the Chipuxet rises in North Kingstown, passes through the Great Swamp in South Kingstown and is a major part of the Wood-Pawcatuck Watershed. Emptying into Worden’s Pond, the river contributes to the University of Rhode Island’s drinking water supply.
Narragansett ancestors harvested resources from the river such as fish and small mammals, beavers and otters, which could be used for clothing and tool making as well as a food source, according to Spears. Plants such as bull rush, rose hips, cattails, nuts and berries that grew along rivers like the Chipuxet were regularly harvested.
Birch tree growths along the river, called Chaga, can be made into a tea and sap can be harvested, which is where birch and root beer comes from originally, according to Spears. Many of these resources are still harvested and used by the Narragansett peoples today.
The Chipuxet and other South County rivers used by the Narragansett people were ancestrally significant as a means of travel between the tribe’s coastal summer home and inland winter home, according to Spears. Canoeing and walking along the banks, tribal members journeyed within communities and connected with other peoples.
“You know our whole lives, I mean the river systems were integral to the Narragansett way of life,” Spears said.
While the Chipuxet today is a popular kayaking spot for those who may not be Indigenous, it continues to be a place that the Narragansett people traditionally use regularly. It is still a source of resource collection and acknowledged as an element of ceremony.
Narragansett people who live close to the Chipuxet fish and hunt by the river on a regular basis, according to Spears. Nuts, berries and other plants there are also used for sustenance and creation.
“There’s still a lot of traditional artists, culture bearers that are harvesting materials, that are turning them into traditional belongings,” Spears said.
Some of these traditional belongings include tools for fishing, knife points and woven baskets, which all can use resources collected from rivers like the Chipuxet in their creation, according to Spears.
Culture bearers carry forward their customs by harvesting materials and resources in the process of creation, according to Spears. The Tomaquag Museum in Exeter works to uplift culture bearers and share their knowledge with new generations.
“Space has been populated over time and has made us almost invisible in our homeland,” Spears said. “Indigenous people are still connected to that river … this is our homeland.”
Spears has led traditional ecological knowledge, or tek, tours of the river with URI students. Some of these tours were with landscape design students, when Spears discussed ways to think about the Indigenous ways of knowing the landscape and being in relationship with it.
“I think that Indigenous people would want people to know that they need to do a better job of caring for the Earth in order to sustain you,” Spears said.
South County Rivers is a series of stories from the The Community News Lab, a project of URI’s Harrington School of Communication and Media (email newslabeditor@uri.edu). Caroline McCullough is an anthropology and journalism major at the University of Rhode Island.