One nation two worlds

When Tribal Councilwoman Bella Noka sent her children to Chariho's public schools, she reminded them: "The stories your teachers tell you may conflict with ours."

The Narragansetts' stories, she told them, come from your parents and our parents and their parents.

For tribal members, the question is always: Who's telling our story?

Early histories of the region invariably begin with the arrival of Europeans -- the Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano, who sailed into Narragansett Bay in 1524, or the English settlers who followed -- and reflect the Europeans' experience.

But in recent decades, historians have questioned the Colonial records and later historical accounts, which often misunderstand or ignore the Indian perspective.

Some, like Ruth Herndon, a professor at the University of Toledo, rely on tribal members and oral history as well as written records.

"I'm suspicious whenever I hear a story that doesn't have multiple perspectives," Herndon says. "I don't consider the written record more viable than the oral sources."

Working with tribal ethnohistorian Ella Sekatau, Herndon has coauthored articles about Narragansett life in the 1700s. She has examined 18th century records in 15 Rhode Island towns, and says they show a "definite cultural blindness."

Noka puts it another way: "The victor writes the story."

Sources for this four-part history include interviews with ethnohistorian Ella Sekatau, medicine man Lloyd Wilcox, Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas and other Narragansett tribal members; Journal archives; and the following books and articles:

Soldiers in King Philip's War, by George M. Bodge; The Narragansett People, by Ethel Boissevain; The Diary of King Philip's War, 1675-1676, by Benjamin Church; King Philip's War: Civil War in New England, 1675-1676, by James D. Drake; American Indians, by William T. Hagan; "The Right to a Name," by Ruth Herndon and Ella Sekatau; Flintlock and Tomahawk, by Douglas E. Leach; The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origins of American Identity, by Jill Lepore; Native American Archaeology in Rhode Island, by the Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission;

Grave Undertakings: An Archaeology of Roger Williams and the Narragansett Indians, by Patricia E. Rubertone; Manitou and Providence: Indians, Europeans, and the Making of New England, 1500-1643, by Neal Salisbury; The Narragansett, Old Light on Separate Ways: The Narragansett Diary of Joseph Fish and Spirit of the New England Tribes: Indian History and Folklore, 1620-1984, by William S. Simmons; New England Frontier: Puritans and Indians 1620-1675, by Alden T. Vaughan; and A Key into the Language of America, by Roger Williams.

-- PAUL DAVIS