Osamequin, or Ousamequin, the Massasoit of the Pokanoket Tribe, whose name means Yellow Feather, led a confederacy of many tribes before the English arrived in Plymouth in 1620 and helped the Plymouth Colony survive while negotiating the Peace Treaty of 1621, which endured for over 40 years. His people, known to themselves as the Pauquunaukit, meaning land of the clearing, were called Pokanoket by the English, and their homeland was Sowams, an area that now includes Barrington, Bristol, East Providence, and Warren in Rhode Island, and Rehoboth, Seekonk, and Swansea in Massachusetts. Sowams was a pivotal place of cultural exchange between Indigenous people and colonizing settlers in North America. In the winter of 1636, Osamequin welcomed Roger Williams to Sowams after he fled Salem to avoid being sent back to England, and when Williams became sick, the Pokanoket sheltered him and nursed him back to health for three months before granting him permission to settle near Omega Pond in what is now East Providence; he later moved and founded what is now Providence. After devastating epidemics weakened their nation, the Pokanoket were forced from their lands by encroachment and war, followed by exile and enslavement, and after the King Philip War they were forced to call themselves Wampanoag. Descendants of Osamequin and the Pokanoket Tribe still live throughout southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and Pokanoket belief is rooted in respect for creation and the connections between humans and nature.