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Narragansett people
The Narragansett people are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. Today, Narragansett people are enrolled in the federally recognized Narragansett Indian Tribe, headquartered in Rhode Island. Their Narragansett language belongs to the Algonquian language family.
The tribe was nearly landless for most of the 20th century but acquired land in 1991 and petitioned the Department of the Interior to take the land into trust on their behalf. This would have made the newly acquired land officially recognized as part of the Narragansett Indian reservation, taking it out from under Rhode Island's legal authority. In 2009, the United States Supreme Court ruled against the request in their lawsuit Carcieri v. Salazar, declaring that tribes which had achieved federal recognition since the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act did not have standing to have newly acquired lands taken into federal trust and removed from state control.
The name Narragansett has been translated as "people of the little points and bays" and "(People) of the Small Point". Linguist James Hammond Trumbull wrote that naiag or naiyag means a corner or angle in the Algonquian languages, so that the prefix nai is found in the names of many points of land on the sea coast and rivers of New England (e.g. Nayatt Point in Rhode Island and Noyack on Long Island). The word nai-ig-an-set, according to Trumbull, signifies "the territory about the point", and nai-ig-an-eog means "the people of the point".
Narragansetts were first written about in the 17th century, and their name was spelled in many different ways, including Nanohigganset, Nanhyganset, Nanhiggonsick, Nanhigonset, Nanihiggonsicks, Nanhiggonsicks, Narriganset, Narrogonset, and Nahigonsicks.
Roger Williams learned the Narragansett language, and he wrote a definitive study on it in A Key Into the Language of America in 1643. He traced the source of the word Narragansett to a geographical location:
Being inquisitive of what root the title or denomination Nahigonset should come I heard that Nahigonsset was so named from a little island, between Puttaquomscut and Mishquomacuk on the sea and fresh water side. I went on purpose to see it, and about the place called Sugar Loaf Hill I saw it and was within a pole of it [i.e. a rod or 16+1⁄2 feet ], but could not learn why it was called Nahigonset.
Berkeley anthropologist William Simmons (1938-2018), who specialized in the Narragansett people, confirms Williams's view but wrote that the precise location of the place seen by Williams could not be determined.
But in fact, Roger Williams's statement does enable a fairly precise localization: He states that the place was "a little island, between Puttaquomscut and Mishquomacuk on the sea and fresh water side", and that it was near Sugar Loaf Hill. This means it was between the Pettaquamscutt (or Narrow) river to the east and the present town of Westerly to the west (the "sea side" and "fresh water side" indicating East and West respectively in that location) and to the north of Point Judith Pond (where Sugar Loaf Hill is located).
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Narragansett people
The Narragansett people are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. Today, Narragansett people are enrolled in the federally recognized Narragansett Indian Tribe, headquartered in Rhode Island. Their Narragansett language belongs to the Algonquian language family.
The tribe was nearly landless for most of the 20th century but acquired land in 1991 and petitioned the Department of the Interior to take the land into trust on their behalf. This would have made the newly acquired land officially recognized as part of the Narragansett Indian reservation, taking it out from under Rhode Island's legal authority. In 2009, the United States Supreme Court ruled against the request in their lawsuit Carcieri v. Salazar, declaring that tribes which had achieved federal recognition since the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act did not have standing to have newly acquired lands taken into federal trust and removed from state control.
The name Narragansett has been translated as "people of the little points and bays" and "(People) of the Small Point". Linguist James Hammond Trumbull wrote that naiag or naiyag means a corner or angle in the Algonquian languages, so that the prefix nai is found in the names of many points of land on the sea coast and rivers of New England (e.g. Nayatt Point in Rhode Island and Noyack on Long Island). The word nai-ig-an-set, according to Trumbull, signifies "the territory about the point", and nai-ig-an-eog means "the people of the point".
Narragansetts were first written about in the 17th century, and their name was spelled in many different ways, including Nanohigganset, Nanhyganset, Nanhiggonsick, Nanhigonset, Nanihiggonsicks, Nanhiggonsicks, Narriganset, Narrogonset, and Nahigonsicks.
Roger Williams learned the Narragansett language, and he wrote a definitive study on it in A Key Into the Language of America in 1643. He traced the source of the word Narragansett to a geographical location:
Being inquisitive of what root the title or denomination Nahigonset should come I heard that Nahigonsset was so named from a little island, between Puttaquomscut and Mishquomacuk on the sea and fresh water side. I went on purpose to see it, and about the place called Sugar Loaf Hill I saw it and was within a pole of it [i.e. a rod or 16+1⁄2 feet ], but could not learn why it was called Nahigonset.
Berkeley anthropologist William Simmons (1938-2018), who specialized in the Narragansett people, confirms Williams's view but wrote that the precise location of the place seen by Williams could not be determined.
But in fact, Roger Williams's statement does enable a fairly precise localization: He states that the place was "a little island, between Puttaquomscut and Mishquomacuk on the sea and fresh water side", and that it was near Sugar Loaf Hill. This means it was between the Pettaquamscutt (or Narrow) river to the east and the present town of Westerly to the west (the "sea side" and "fresh water side" indicating East and West respectively in that location) and to the north of Point Judith Pond (where Sugar Loaf Hill is located).
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