Signs signs, everywhere a sign on Charlestown Beach Road. Attached to metal gates and wooden fences. Fastened to chains strung across sandy parking spots. No trespassing. Keep out. Private property. No beach access. No public access.
These testaments to historic theft — not by the current owners but by centuries of violence against this land’s Indigenous people — don’t escape the notice of Narragansett Indian Tribe members as they make their way down house-lined Charlestown Beach Road to the shores of Block Island Sound, a sacred ceremonial place for the tribe for thousands of years. It’s a place the tribe has used for generations to gain their spiritual bearing and to provide for their families.
But, as the years go by, more and more of their ancestral land is walled off. And tribal members progressively have to pay more to access their ancient spiritual grounds: the coast and the ocean.
“This is our church. Our place of worship. This was a very special place for our ancestors,” said Bella Noka, standing on Charlestown Breachway State Beach. “It’s been fenced off. Every bit of it taken from us.”
Her husband, Randy, noted that the Narragansett Indian Tribe owns no coastal property, despite many of the roads that lead to Rhode Island’s shore bearing names taken from his tribe’s language. Many of the state’s shoreline villages also have Indigenous names. One of the state’s most popular coastal communities and its popular town beach are actually named Narragansett. The state’s popular Polar Bear and Penguin plunges are knockoffs of a centuries-old tribal tradition.
“Regardless of what they call things, or what names they put upon places, this is ancestral lands of the Narragansett Tribe,” Randy Noka said. “And it always will be, regardless of the boundaries, regardless of the fences, regardless of who pays taxes, and what ownership concepts came with those from foreign lands. … You would think that the beach should be open totally. You should be able to walk from here to Florida, from here to Maine.”
In late October, standing a few feet away from boulders that make up the Charlestown Breachway, on a beach where her ancestors prayed, danced, hunted, fished and harvested seaweed, Bella Noka was quick to point out the number of empty homes, closed up for the winter, that line Charlestown Beach Road. There was both anger and sadness in her voice as she connected this local scene to the problem of homelessness.
“These are summer homes,” said Mishqi Waupi, which translates to Red Wind. “Their homes are built over our ancient burial grounds. They dig them up and without any respect they toss them to the side, and they continue to build.”
She noted the the coast is where her people go to be healed. She said the ocean needs to be shared, and all people should have access to it.
“The ocean has been providing for our families for generations,” said Randy Noka, whose tribal name is Pappone Muskquoshim, which means Winter Wolf. “The tribe should have deeded rights to the coast. The 1978 agreement doesn’t mean this oversight can’t be corrected. It doesn’t take much to do the right thing.”
To make things a tad more fair and to return to the tribe a slice of its coastal land and a part of its heritage, Bella Noka proposed the state give a strip of land to the right of the Charlestown Breachway to the tribe. It would be a place tribal members could go without being harassed by a curious, sometimes rude, public. Coastal real estate they could call their own and could share with respectful visitors.
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