Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/59

Rh of Indians dwelt at Nayatt, Chachapacassett, Chachacust, Sowams, Wannamoisett, and Annawomscutt.

The evidences which exist, to determine the sites of their principal villages and camping places, are numerous. They are marked, not as ours, by their proximity to centres of trade, and by piles of brick and mortar, but by their nearness to the places where fish and fowl congregated, and by heaps of shells taken from the rivers. The burial grounds of the tribes were near their villages. Their implements of husbandry and domestic life, of war and of the chase, of fowling and of fishing, in the form of stone or iron, have been found in large numbers, in various localities, between the Titicut and Patuckquet Rivers, and the farmer's ploughshare often unwittingly disturbs the resting place of the first proprietors of the soil. At Mattapoyset, Touisit, Montop, Kickemuit, Sowams, and Wannamoiset, vast quantities of oyster, clam, and quahaug shells, either in heaps or scattered throughout the soil, not only mark their homes, but indicate the antiquity of these favorite resorts. These are the last material vestiges and memorials of the brave old tribe of the Wampanoags. While time is consuming these, would it not be fitting to restore and preserve the historic and ofttimes euphonious titles of the localities, from which they have been removed, by the extinction of the tribes themselves?

The Wampanoags have left us several Indian names of localities which we do well to locate carefully and preserve. Which brief reference has already been made to the whole, a fuller description is of importance in this chapter.

Sowams or Sowamset was the territory of Barrington with parts of East Providence, Seekonk, and Swansea. For a full discussion of this locality, the reader is referred to Sowams and Barrington.

Sowams River.—Both branches of Warren River, the Barrington and Palmers.