Tomaquag Museum
Narragansett and other Southern New England voices use belongings, art, language, and programs to place tribal life before, through, and beyond colonization.
Artwork inspired by Narragansett wampum tradition
Founded through the work of Princess Red Wing and anthropologist Eva Butler, Tomaquag is Rhode Island’s only Indigenous-led museum. Its collections and teaching center tribal sovereignty, persistence, cultural practice, and contemporary artists instead of presenting Native history as a vanished preface to the state.
The Exeter facility has limited appointment and program-based access while the institution develops its future campus. Never assume standard walk-in hours: reserve directly, follow photography guidance, and listen to the museum’s terminology for objects and community rather than substituting generic colonial labels. Community events and artist programs are especially valuable because they make continuity visible in the present tense.
- Founded
- 1958
- Leadership
- Indigenous-led
- Focus
- Narragansett and regional Native cultures
Quick guide
- Reserve first
- Treat confirmation as required, not optional.
- Use community terms
- Follow the museum’s names for people and belongings.
Know before you go
- Reserve first
- Treat confirmation as required, not optional.
- Use community terms
- Follow the museum’s names for people and belongings.
- Look for continuity
- Connect historic material with living artists and language.
- Respect protocols
- Ask before photography or recording.
Good to know
This is not a casual drop-in attraction. Access, address, and programming are changing as the museum advances a new facility; rely on the official site and direct confirmation rather than an old directory listing.
Notice these
- Narragansett belongings
- Contemporary Native art
- Language and education