Acknowledgment and Dedication

Over millennia, the land now called Rhode Island has been home to many governments, communities, and peoples. Indigenous people from many nations—near and far—live, study and work in Rhode Island today. We recognize Indigenous Rhode Islanders, including the Narragansett, Niantic, Nipmuc, Wampanoag, and Pokanoket peoples, as traditional stewards and inhabitants of this territory, and we recognize the histories of colonial violence and dispossession against Indigenous communities in Rhode Island. We gratefully acknowledge the ongoing critical contributions of Indigenous people to the civic life of our state, region, and nation.

We also recognize that the state of Rhode Island exists, in part, due to the forced labor of enslaved and indentured people of African descent and Indigenous descent. We acknowledge and honor the integral contributions of these Rhode Islanders to the state’s institutions, infrastructure, culture, and economy, and we value their legacy in their descendants and in Rhode Island’s civic life.