Seaside communities in New England are providing free beach access to Native Americans as the summer season kicks off this Memorial Day weekend.
Water nearly reaches the dune barrier at Ballston beach, Friday, Nov. 13, 2015, in Truro, Massachusetts. Some seaside communities in New England are providing free beach access to Native Americans as the 2022 summer season kicks off this Memorial Day weekend. Earlier this month, officials in Narragansett, Rhode Island approved free seasonal beach passes for anyone with a valid identification card from the Narragansett Indian tribe.
Brian Weeden, chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe on Cape Cod that traces its ancestry to the Native Americans that encountered the Pilgrims, commended the towns for taking the “symbolic steps” to recognize the importance of the ocean to their tribe's heritage. “We’re not acting like we’re doing the biggest favor to the tribe,” he said. “This is just something that we thought was right and that we can do. Hopefully it adds momentum to some kind of relationship with the tribe.”
Pugh said Narragansett beaches are funded by revenues generated from beach fees, so they aren’t covered by local taxpayers in the traditional sense. Weeden, of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, hopes Massachusetts and other states can take broader efforts to codify beach access rights for tribes, rather than piecemeal efforts by individual communities.
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