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Abstract

In her essay, “The Sakonnet History Project: Co-Creating a New Public History of the Sakonnet People,” Marjory Gomez O’Toole, describes an ongoing initiative that was recently launched by the Little Compton Historical Society. Its object is to bring to light the history of the Indigenous Sakonnet People who lived in the area for more than nine thousand years before European settlers arrived; their descendants still live in the Little Compton area today. Gomez O’Toole explores what it means to interrogate long-held myths and misunderstandings about the history of the Sakonnet people. We especially welcome this dispatch from Little Compton as Newport History is committed to publishing articles concerning all of Newport County which includes the towns of Middletown, Portsmouth, Tiverton, Little Compton and Jamestown, as well as the city of Newport. Marjory Gomez O’Toole has been Executive Director of the Little Compton Historical Society for the past eighteen years. During her tenure she has authored or edited nine local history books for the LCHS including If Jane Should Want to be Sold: Stories of Enslavement, Indenture and Freedom in Newport History Little Compton, R.I. (2016) and Remember Me: A Guide to Little Compton’s 46 Historic Cemeteries (2018). She has overseen a number of exhibits including the Little Compton Women’s History Project, an in-person and virtual exhibit (2020).

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