From the Archives: The Arson of the Narragansett Indian Church

Belonging(s): “A close relationship among a group and personal or public effects”

“Asco wequassinummis, neetompooag” (Hello my friends)!

Hello! Welcome back to another installment of the From the Archives series where Collections and Archive Manager Anthony Belz shares some of the more interesting materials in the Tomaquag Museum archival collections. In this installment, we will be discussing the devastating arson of that nearly destroyed the Narragansett Indian Church in Charlestown, Rhode Island on December 13, 1993.

For the Narragansett people, the Narragansett Indian Church is the representation of the continuance on this land called Turtle Island. The gravitational center of the Narragansett tribe, it is surrounded by nearly two acres of land which has been in their hands continuously since the dawn of time. The reason it is the only parcel of land that has been continuously been held by the Narragansett is due to the state of Rhode Island conducting detribalization in 1880-1884, where they unfairly removed any landholdings of tribal members and sold them to the highest bidder. Tribal members identified by the State of Rhode Island who were deemed as eligible for monetary compensation received $15.43 ($475.27 in 2024 dollars) after the sale of the land. The only parcel of land not to be sold was that of the church grounds. These grounds are so central and important to the Narragansett Tribe that the annual August Meeting is currently held there. The August Meeting was was first recorded in 1675 and remains the oldest continuously held Powwow in the United States.

The original Narragansett Indian Church was a wooden structure built in 1759 that was also unfortunately destroyed by fire in 1858. The new granite church which opened in 1859 retained the original church’s chimney. Narragansett stone masons quarried local granite and built anew the church by hand, block by block. The pews were also built by Narragansett carpenters and were complexly lost in the 1993 blaze, as were the archives that resided there. An immense and irreplaceable loss to the Narragansett Tribe.

Listen below to hear a excerpt of an oral history interview conducted with Reverend Roland Mars, the pastor of the church at the time, and his wife Starr Mars (both Narragansett), which was conducted by Paulla Dove Jennings (Narragansett-Niantic) and Kate April from October 5, 2006. In this recording, he tells the story of how he found out the church was destroyed, the aftermath and the community response and determination to rebuilding the church in time for August Meeting.