Faculty Letter at Brown U. Intensifies Standoff Over Tribe’s Claim to Land

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A group that identifies as Native American wants Brown University to cede 375 acres of land that the tribe says belongs to it by ancestral right. About 40 to 50 members and supporters of the Pokanoket tribe have set up camp on the property, in Bristol, R.I., and say they aren’t leaving until the university yields.

They are at odds not only with Brown’s administration but also with faculty members who study indigenous culture. Late in August, a committee in the program of Native American and indigenous studies at Brown issued a statement that, among other things, attempted to define the difference between being a federally recognized tribe and having an indigenous background.

The goal, some writers told The Chronicle, was not to challenge the legitimacy of the Pokanokets’ tribal standing, but to provide context for a controversy that includes questions of tribal identity and legal wrangling.

The six-member committee did acknowledge the challenges that many Native Americans face in having been largely written out of history. It also noted Brown’s practice of allowing tribes to use the land, and mentioned that other local tribes also have an interest in it. The statement was written independent of the administration.

In the passages that have attracted the most criticism, the scholars describe the history of the Pokanokets and how the federal government doesn’t recognize it as a tribe.

“There is a delicate yet important technical difference between holding Native ancestry and holding nation status, and that is at the heart of the issue here,” they wrote. “Because the Pokanoket are unrecognized, they would not have access to any of the federal or state protections around tribal land holdings, and would not be able to put the land into trust, the cornerstone of tribal sovereignty.”

Linford D. Fisher, an associate professor of history at Brown, told The Chronicle that among local tribes “there are competing claims to the land and who should have ownership to it and whether or not that ownership should be exclusive.”

While the faculty members said their goal was to provide more information about the history and politics at issue, the statement appears to have agitated an already tense situation. The Pokanokets said the statement amounted to misinformation; others said the university seemed to be trying to censor the group.

That perception is not lost on the scholars of the committee. One of them, Adrienne Keene, an assistant professor of American studies and ethnic studies, runs a blog, Native Appropriations, that focuses on indigenous culture and its representation in the mainstream media. In a post, she wrote that she had done research and other work on the circumstances to ensure that “Brown doesn’t mess this up.”

“I can assure you that this situation is one that I’ve approached with the utmost care, weighing perspectives and relationships and roles,” Ms. Keene wrote. “It is not a position I take lightly. Do these things make me a sellout and complicit in the colonial system? Maybe. But I’m working hard here.” (Ms. Keene did not respond to emails from The Chronicle.)

In Negotiations

The Pokanokets’ efforts to reclaim the 375 acres began on August 20. The Bristol property, about 16 miles southeast of Brown, had been given to the university by a local family in sections, starting in the 1950s. It is home to the Collections Research Center of the university’s Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology. The center is not normally open to visitors, although those who are interested can schedule an appointment to see the collections, which include anthropological artifacts.

A university spokesman, Brian Clark, told The Chronicle that a few staff members have been working at a different location since the encampment began, but that the gathering of tents on the green hills, has otherwise been noninvasive in terms of day-to-day operations.

The university and members of the encampment have been in negotiations since late August. Brown said in a statement that it had offered to consult all tribes having a potential stake in the land and to conduct a review that would document the history of the property. Potential solutions include the creation of a trust to hold the land, a co-management agreement, the creation of a nonprofit group, and dividing up the land.

But that proposal would have required the Pokanokets to leave the grounds before that work could begin. They have rejected that offer, but negotiations continue.

“The University is deeply concerned and saddened that this plan — as well as all efforts and entreaties to work toward an inclusive resolution — has been refused by the Pokanoket, based on their contention that other Native tribes do not have a legitimate interest in or a connection with this land,” the university said.

The Pokanokets’ leader, Po Wauipi Neimpaug, said in a statement that the group had turned down the offer because it couldn’t agree to the terms: “The Pokanoket Tribe was concerned with the assertion that while in its own ancestral lands other tribes, most of whom have already been designated reservation lands for their own administration and use, would be able to dictate when and how the Pokanoket Tribe would steward its own ancestral lands.”

As negotiations continue, tribe members went to Brown’s main campus, in Providence, on September 5, where they marched, carried signs, and chanted. They have made Facebook requests to hundreds of followers for food including vegetables, coffee, and deli meat. They have also put out a call for firewood. The group has scheduled a teach-in at Brown on Friday.

The Pokanokets say they are a Native American tribe, but the federal government doesn’t acknowledge them as such. Members claim direct lineage from the indigenous leader Metacomet, also known as King Philip, who led a rebellion against the colonial government in the 17th century. The Native Americans lost that bloody conflict.

A representative of the camp, Neesu Wushuwunoag, who is not a tribe member, told The Chronicle by telephone that federal recognition was unnecessary. The Pokanokets hold a tribal trust through an international treaty, he said, and have tried to coordinate with local governments. They declined to go through the federal government, he said, in order to maintain their sovereignty.

Mr. Wushuwunoag also questioned the need for the federal government to recognize a tribe’s agency. And he said the statement from the faculty committee at Brown suggested that a tribe is legitimate only if it has federal blessing.

“To me that’s so backward-thinking,” he said. “You need to have the federal government say you are who you are to be who you are — what were you before federally recognized?”

Scholarly Involvement

The scholars say they are sympathetic to the question of who is and isn’t recognized as native. But they argue that many people are entitled to the land, and that the Pokanokets’ claim is not absolute.

Mr. Fisher, the history professor, said the statement was meant to provide context to people with only a basic knowledge of the encampment.

“We have a student body that is wonderfully activistic and loves to jump on situations that involve justice and to champion the right of downtrodden,” Mr. Fisher said. “We’re afraid without proper context and information, they would actually be putting themselves in a situation that would end up alienating other native groups in the area.”

He said it’s unfortunate that the statement has been seen by some as a challenge to the tribe’s identity. Paja Faudree, an associate professor of anthropology who is also on the committee, said the statement “helped to escalate the situation.”

Ms. Keene, the American-studies professor, described the challenge of attempting to support indigenous rights while representing the university.

“The question of radical activism as a faculty member in an academic institution will always be one that I wrestle with,” she wrote on her blog. “My voice online makes me a target, my scholarship does as well. But I still push hard in the institution, I don’t let them get away with things that are harming my students or community.”

Mr. Wushuwunoag, the tribal representative, said he disagreed with the faculty committee’s message even though it helped validate the cause.

“There’s a lot of Indians out there who were like, ‘Hey wait a minute, what right does Brown have to decide who is real Indian or not, and what do they mean you’re not a tribe unless you’re federally recognized?’ " he said. “I think it actually did the opposite of what Brown would have hoped. I think it brought more people to the cause and wanting to know more about what’s going on and who the Pokanokets are.”

Chris Quintana is a breaking-news reporter. Follow him on Twitter @cquintanadc or email him at chris.quintana@chronicle.com.