Anthony Dean Stanton is Chief Sachem of the Narragansett Indian tribe. Credit: Alex Nunes
by Luis Hernandez
Rhode Island PBS
Anthony Dean Stanton, Chief Sachem of the Narragansett Indian Tribe, is speaking out against recent land transfers that he says are benefiting groups that are not legitimate American Indian tribes.
Late last year, Brown University transferred some 255 acres of land it owned in Bristol to a trust associated with the Pokanoket Tribe. That came after a separate land trust associated with another indigenous group, called Pocasset Wampanoag Tribe of the Pokanoket Nation, acquired land in Tiverton with help from a state open space grant.
The Narragansett Indian Tribe is the state’s only federally recognized tribe, and Chief Sachem Anthony Dean Stanton says the Narragansett had to go through a rigorous review to get that recognition. He’s now calling for a process to be put into place to guide land transfers in the future.