Tomaquag Museum

This Giving Tuesday, YOUR donation to Tomaquag Museum will strengthen our programs and ensure we have the resources needed to continue our mission to educate all our relations (everyone) on Indigenous cutlures of the Dawnland through engagement and shared dialogue; to reconcile the past and empower present and future generations. 

Your gift amplifies our voices and empowers us day after day to share Indigenous knowledge, celebrate culture, overcome obstacles, address inequities, and persevere, especially in this uncertain political and economic climate. YOU make the difference!

Your compassion and desire to uplift Indigenous voices by giving a gift, large or small, and advocacy means so much, especially in this time of Nikommo (giving)! Kutaputush! Thank you!

Tomaquag Museum was established in 1958 by Eva Butler, an anthropologist, with the guidance of the late Princess Red Wing (Narragansett/Wampanoag).  It is Rhode Island’s only museum entirely dedicated to telling the story of the Indigenous peoples of this land.  The Museum, located in historic Arcadia Village in Exeter since the early 1970s, is also the only Rhode Island museum operated by Indigenous people.  It originated in Tomaquag Valley, a hamlet inside the village of Ashaway in the town of Hopkinton, Rhode Island.

An Institute of Museum and Library Services 2016 National Medal winner, the Museum has a unique collection of thousands of cultural objects, along with hundreds of thousands of pieces of archival materials focusing on the Indigenous peoples of southern New England, highlighting the federally recognized Narragansett Tribe.  The Museum is well respected and is visited each year by researchers, students, and travelers from across the United States and throughout the world.

Regular visits by Native professionals, artists, and storytellers add many perspectives to each visitor’s discovery of the world at the Museum.  Our special programs share Native perspectives on traditional health and wellbeing, education, history, technologies, culture, and the Indigenous arts.  The Museum hosts classes on beadwork, pottery, weaving, and painting, among others.

Presentations through our off-site programs, lectures, and cultural presentations bring our culture, traditional arts, and history to the public at large.  The Museum’s unique educational programs include specialized tours, Native games, Indigenous foods, ecology of Mother Earth, Eastern Woodland slide presentations, educators’ workshops, conferences, and books and curricula on contemporary issues and events.