Indigenous people known today as the Pokanoket Tribe lived in the Town of Warren for thousands of years before the first European settlers arrived. The town and surrounding area, called Sowams, was prized and respected by the Pokanoket for its rich soil, abundant wildlife, and bountiful waters. In the early 17th century, Sowams was the home of the Massasoit Ousamequin, who, despite recognizing a pattern of exploitation of Native people by European traders, forged a historic agreement of mutual protection and cooperation with the Pilgrims in Plymouth in 1621. In the decades that followed, the expanding English population and its persistent disrespect for Native autonomy led to a deadly war in 1675–76 that devastated the Pokanoket Tribe and other tribes throughout the region. The war ended with colonists seizing Sowams and scattering the Pokanoket from their ancestral homelands. In 2021, four hundred years after Ousamequin met the Pilgrims, the Warren Town Council adopted a land acknowledgement recognizing Warren as Sowams, the ancestral home of the Pokanoket, honoring their long stewardship of the lands and waterways of Rhode Island and Massachusetts, and affirming ongoing efforts to recognize, honor, reconcile, and partner with the Pokanoket people for the benefit of the lands and waters of Sowams.
