Sowams NHA Feasibility Study
This study represents four years of significant research and intensive public engagement, ranging from individual interviews to community-wide conversations and public input sessions.
The Sowams planning team held more than 460 meetings with community stakeholders, subject matter experts, civic and tribal leaders, business and tourism entities, environmental groups, and academic, cultural, heritage and religious organizations.
Guided by the criteria of the National Heritage Area Act of 2023, the planning team focused on three core questions:
1. What nationally significant stories link the region’s communities and help define the American experience?
2. Do the region’s historic, cultural, and natural resources possess the integrity and concentration needed to convey those stories?
3. Does Sowams have the organizational capacity and partnerships to steward these resources, enrich quality of life, share important history, and foster sustainable economic development?
Checking all the boxes
Criteria A:
A Nationally Significant, Living Landscape
The NHA has an assemblage of natural, historic, and cultural resources that represent distinctive aspects of the heritage of the United States; are worthy of recognition, conservation, interpre-tation, and continuing use; and would be best managed through public-private partnership linking diverse resources and active communities.
Sowams offers the nation a rare opportunity –
to experience, in one compact place, the promise and the peril that marked America’s beginnings;
to confront stories both triumphant and painful; and to foster renewed dialogue about belonging and stewardship.
By designating Sowams National Heritage Area, Congress can elevate a landscape where diplomacy once flourished, war reshaped destinies, freedom of conscience took root, and the tide of enterprise carried New England into a global age.
Designation will not only safeguard irreplaceable resources; it will invite residents and visitors alike to engage with the complex beginnings of the American story, encouraging meaningful interpretation, reconciliation, and collaborative conservation.
Criteria B:
Traditions and Customs
The NHA reflects traditions, customs, beliefs, and folklife that are a valuable part of the national story.
Sowams contains a continuum of traditions that reflect important currents in the American experience.
As documented in the historic context found
in Chapter 2, Indigenous worldviews centered on reciprocity with the land and water anchored the region’s maritime economy, which evolved over centuries and still is celebrated today in the water-oriented cultures of the Portuguese and Cape Verdean communities.
The legacies of early theological reformers and successive waves of immigrants have enriched the region.
Criteria C:
Conservation, Recreation and Education
The NHA provides outstanding opportunities to conserve natural, historic, cultural or scenic features for recreation and education.
Sowams presents an interwoven landscape where traditional Indigenous sites, colonial-era farms and meetinghouses, and later historic properties lie amid the bays and rivers, estuaries, salt marshes, meadows, and forestlands.
This mosaic of cultural landmarks, natural habitats and working waterfronts demonstrates great historical and ecological value and offer opportunities for experiential education and outdoor recreation.
A well-established network of local organizations and agencies already exists for coordination in the documentation, planning, and preservation of historic resources; participation in projects and programs that address climate resilience and natural resource and land conservation; and the leveraging of funding for stewardship projects.
Criteria D:
Significant Resources
The NHA contains resources that are important to its identified theme and retain a degree of integrity capable of supporting interpretation.
The Sowams study area contains a critical mass of historic, cultural, and natural resources whose documented integrity can sustain high-quality interpretation of the region’s national significance and supporting themes.
The region’s historic context is described in Chapter 2, while a thematic framework
and descriptions of key resources are set forth in Chapter 3.
An inventory of 191 resources is found in Appendix E – Sowams Resource Inventory.
Criteria E:
Broad Engagement, Sound Financial Strategy, and Community Support
The NHA involves a diverse group of residents, business interests, nonprofit organizations, and State and local government in planning the NHA and developing an inclusive conceptual financial framework, and have demonstrated significant support for NHA designation.
The Sowams team held more than 460 meetings throughout the region during the planning process.
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More than 120 partners have been identified, many of whom have directly contributed to the planning process, strategy development, and outreach initiatives (see Appendix A – Planning Participants, Appendix B – Sowams Public Outreach Activities, and Appendix D – Sowams Partners)
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A governance committee composed of planners and nonprofit professionals developed a financial strategy and administrative framework for the coordinating entity, following a diversified approach that ensures the financial sustainability. (See Chapter 4)
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The feasibility study incorporates 73 letters of support and resolutions from stakeholders throughout the region, including from all nine municipalities (See Appendix I – Commitment and Support for Sowams NHA)
Criteria F:
Sustainable and Inclusive Management Entity
The NHA has a potential management entity to develop the proposed NHA, which would partner with stakeholders and encourage State and local economic activity.
Sowams’ proposed coordinating entity is grounded on an existing nonprofit’s infrastructure.
The planning team is already building the capacity to function as an NHA with a new governing board, working committees, branding and marketing platforms, and collaborative programming.
The feasibility study describes in detail the proposed organizational structure and administrative rollout. (See Chapter 4)
The partnership model aligns well with existing plans throughout the region that outline economic development opportunities, climate mitigation, and heritage conservation. (See Appendix C – Concurrent Plans)
Criteria G:
Community-supported Boundary
The NHA has a conceptual boundary map that is supported by the public.
Sowams’ proposed boundary traces the ancestral homeland of the Pokanoket Tribe, embracing nine municipalities – four in Massachusetts and five in Rhode Island – within a compact 140-square-mile corridor framed by Narragansett Bay, Mount Hope Bay, the tidal Taunton River, and the Moshassuck River.
Shaped through historical and topographical research, discussions with stakeholders, and open public meetings, the boundary enjoys broad support. (See Chapter 3)
Next Steps: Join us!
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Advocate for Sowams NHA legislation
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Introduce a Sowams NHA bill into Congress
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Hold congressional hearings with Natural Resources committees
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Pass legislation designating Sowams as a National Heritage Area
Sowams National Heritage Area Feasibility Study
was made possible by:
