September 26, 2003
Our future kids are never watching 'Poltergeist'
Posted by Jess in
RI Stories
I think I mentioned once that about 20 feet from our property line lies an Indian burial ground. We live in Charlestown, RI, which is very near where the Narragansett Indians went after the Great Swamp Massacre.
After we moved into our house, our neighbors told us about the burial ground. They told us there was a little pile of about 10-20 headstones. We knew that there was a large gap of woods in between our house and the next (where there should have been a lot), and we were told it was Indian property, which is why they couldn’t build there. I was still so curious about it, though.
Here is a group of headstones in the burial ground… you might be inclined to trip over them, they are so small and inconspicuous.
Finally, one day I got my chance to find out everything I wanted to know. A pickup truck parked right along side the cul-de-sac that my house is on and just sat there next to the woods. I almost called the police on him, when he got out of the car and walked over to the woods. I caught a glimpse of the long, grey ponytail and beads and hoped he could tell me more about it.
As it turns out, this man was the Chief Tribal Historian for the Narragansett Indians. The burial ground dates to the 1700’s, and contains members of the Narragansett Indian tribe. He told me that they could tell, because when they found the Indians, they were buried in the fetal position with their head pointed towards the sun, which was tradition for the tribe. The person who sold the lot to the builders did not tell them about the property, and when they started bulldozing, they found they were dozing bones.
When they brought in an archeological crew, they discovered not the 10-20 tombs we thought were there. There is evidence that there are probably around 80 burials in there, spanning all alongside our house on the property line. The headstones have probably long since sunk underground or disappeared over time. According to the Chief Historian, the way of the tribe is to make the headstones as humble and un-attention calling as possible.
He said that soon they would have to do something, as the bones are now dangerously close to the surface of the ground. I asked if I could do anything to help, and he gave me his card and told me to call him if I ever saw anyone over there vandalizing it. I told him how amazing I thought it was, and how I was honored to be living next to such incredible history. His eyes got rather misty and he told me that he was very happy that the grounds had such good neighbors.
Now my only concern is that Reboot doesn’t come home and drop a femur on the doorstep one day, and our future kids don’t try to have a séance out there at midnight.
In the meantime, I’ll just go on appreciating it for what it is. History.
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Are you kidding me??? My kids are gonna be reaised on Poltergeist! As we are planning on having at least 2, when the older one is old enough, I am sure I can dig into my old magic books and find a way to magically drag him/her across the floor durring or after the youger has finished watching it. MUHAHAHA... Am I going to be a bad dad... I doubt it :-) I still have memories of my dad doing things along the same lines... could be why I have a phobia of my big toe though! I cant even shower without seeing it... and to boot (no pun intended), it follows me where ever I go! :-)
Tooie
Isn't the reason for having kids so that you can play with impressionable little minds? Geez, you don't wanna waste the opportunity!
