Seaside towns offer free beach passes to Native Americans

Boston — Seaside communities in New England are providing free beach access to Native Americans as the summer season kicks off this Memorial Day weekend.

Officials in Narragansett, R.I., earlier this month approved free seasonal beach passes for anyone with a valid identification card from the Narragansett Indian tribe.

On Cape Cod in Massachusetts, the towns of Truro and Wellfleet are also extending a similar benefit to any Native American with proof of tribal affiliation when beach permits are required in late June.

The moves come after Eastham, another Cape Cod town, began offering free seasonal stickers to indigenous people in 2020 as part of its efforts to mark the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the Pilgrims aboard The Mayflower.

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.

“In our creation stories, we say the first Wampanoag boy was actually made out of the foam of the sea and therefore we come from the land and the water,” he said. “We are sea-faring people and we need the ocean to survive. It’s been our sustenance for hundreds and thousands of years.”

Jesse Pugh, the town council president in Narragansett, hopes his proposal sparks broader discussions between town officials and the town’s namesake tribe.

“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.”

Narragansett’s new policy allows valid tribe members, regardless where they reside, to get a free seasonal pass.