Pokanoket - Map Points

Map Points

1. Both the Seller Map and the Hack Map document Pokanoket ancestral land to the east and west of the head of what is now called Narragansett Bay.
2. Pokanoket used rivers as boundaries for their ancestral lands due to the natural geographical features of their area. On the West Side of the bay, the boundary starts in the land that is called Cowessett (Land at the border). The Pawtuxet River is the natural boundary that defines the border between the Narragansett and Pokanoket Tribes. Narragansett lands are to the South of the Pawtuxet River.
3. Pokanoket lands lie to the North and Northeast of the Pawtuxet River as far North as the Ponegunsett Reservoir, then continue Northeast of the Ponegunsett Reservoir, Northward up the Chepachet River.
4. The Nipmuc lands are West and Northwest of the Chepachet River. East of this river is Pokanoket lands.
5. We now follow the Charles River from its basin Northeasterly until it empties into Boston Bay. The lands to the West of the Charles River are Nipmuc lands. The lands to the East are Pokanoket lands.
6. The lands North of the Charles River are Massachusetts lands and the lands South of the Charles River are Pokanoket lands.
7. The Eastern mainland boundary of Pokanoket is located at what is now the Cape Cod Canal, which was once a tributary extended from Great Herring Pond. West of this border is Pokanoket land. East of this natural border is the land of the Nausett.
8. This leaves the islands in what we now call Narragansett Bay and the islands off the coast. All the islands in Narragansett Bay on this map are highlighted except for Jamestown and Dutch Island. These two islands belong to the Narragansett, as well as Block Island located in Rhode Island Sound.
9. The highlighted islands on this map -- Rhode Island (Aquidneck), Prudence, Patience, Hog and smaller islands -- belong to Pokanoket. Also highlighted are Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, and No Man’s Land, as well as the Elizabeth Islands, which all belong to Pokanoket.