Some of the most storied places in United States history—the site of the notoriously hazardous Action Park in New Jersey, the battlefields of the Texas Revolution, Providence Plantations founded by Roger Williams, and the Gilded Age mansions of Newport—were all built on Native American homelands. Understanding these locations through an Indigenous lens reveals a deeper truth: American history, from the Revolutionary War Trail in Newport to the Alamo, unfolded on the ancestral territories of the Munsee Lenape, the Comanche and Cherokee, and the Narragansett and Wampanoag nations. This article reexamines these well-known chapters with the Native homelands, treaties, and survival stories restored to their rightful place at the center of the narrative.
Action Park: A Modern Legend on Ancient Lenape Land
Action Park, which operated in Vernon Township, New Jersey, from 1978 to 1996, earned a national reputation as one of the most dangerous amusement parks in American memory, with its unregulated rides and legendary injuries. Yet the rocky hills and lakes that made the park’s Alpine-themed water slides possible are part of the ancestral homeland of the Munsee-speaking Lenape people, who lived in the valleys of the upper Delaware and surrounding highlands for centuries before European settlement.
The Lenape, whom Europeans called the Delaware, were among the first Native nations to negotiate land treaties with colonists, including the famed 1737 Walking Purchase, a fraudulent arrangement that dispossessed Lenape communities in Pennsylvania. By the time Vernon Township was formalized in the nineteenth century, many Lenape families had been displaced westward or had survived quietly within their home regions. The story of a place where visitors knowingly risked losing teeth on the Alpine Slide invites a sobering parallel: the far greater historical dispossession that unfolded on that same land long before any turnstile was built.
The Texas Revolution, Slavery, and the Native Nations Caught in Between
The Texas Revolution of 1835–1836, culminating in the Battle of the Alamo, is often told as a simple struggle for independence. In reality, historians widely recognize that the institution of slavery was central to the conflict. Mexico had abolished slavery in 1829 under President Vicente Guerrero, and the Law of April 6, 1830 sought to halt further American immigration into Texas partly because settlers persisted in bringing enslaved people into Mexican territory. The founders of the Texas Republic wrote slavery’s protection directly into their constitution.
For the Indigenous nations of Texas—especially the Comanche, Kickapoo, Lipan Apache, and a band of Cherokee led by Chief Bowles (Duwali)—the revolution brought devastation rather than liberation. Texan leaders refused to recognize the land grants promised to Cherokee families in East Texas, and in 1839 Bowles and many of his people were killed near the Neches River while fighting to protect their homes. To understand the first shots of the Texas Revolution fully, one must acknowledge that the era of independence ushered in decades of violence against the Native nations whose lands the new republic claimed.
Providence Plantations: Roger Williams and the Narragansett Nation
In 1636, Roger Williams founded Providence after his banishment from Massachusetts Bay, on principles remarkable for their time: religious liberty, the separation of church and state, and a commitment to what he understood as fairness toward Native peoples. Crucially, Williams did not simply seize the land. He purchased it directly from the Narragansett sachems Canonicus and Miantonomi, establishing Providence Plantations through negotiated agreements rather than conquest.
Williams’s respect for Narragansett society went beyond land dealings. He studied their language intensively and published A Key into the Language of America in 1643, an extraordinary early ethnographic work documenting Narragansett vocabulary, lifeways, and customs. Yet the goodwill of Providence’s founding could not protect Rhode Island’s Native neighbors from the wider colonial pattern. The Great Swamp Fight of 1675, a devastating colonial assault on a Narragansett fort during King Philip’s War—in which Williams himself served as a mediator—shattered Narragansett power in the region and destroyed the food stores needed to survive a brutal winter. The Narragansett people survived, and today the federally recognized Narragansett Indian Tribe continues to maintain its presence and government in Rhode Island.
Newport’s Revolutionary War Trail and the First Rhode Island Regiment
Newport, Rhode Island, preserves one of the richest concentrations of Revolutionary-era sites in America. The White Horse Tavern, which opened by 1673, is regarded as one of the oldest operating taverns in the United States, while the Hunter House and other colonial landmarks line streets walked by Patriots, Redcoats, and French allies alike. During the British occupation of Newport and the subsequent 1778 siege, the coastline that had sustained coastal Native nations for thousands of years became the stage of global conflict.
One of the most significant developments of that period was the raising of the First Rhode Island Regiment in 1778, which enlisted Black men—many of them enslaved and promised freedom in exchange for service—as well as Indigenous men. For descendants of Narragansett and Wampanoag communities, and for the Black soldiers of the regiment, the Revolution represented both a fight for liberty and an unfulfilled promise of equality. Their courage is honored today at sites such as the Rhodes on the Pawtuxet memorial and in historical commemorations such as the story of the First Rhode Island Regiment. Rhode Island also carries a unique tie to the opening act of the Revolution: the massacre in Boston of Crispus Attucks, a man of African and Wampanoag descent, who was among those killed in 1770. His story connects the Revolutionary epic directly to New England’s Indigenous and Black communities, and it is explored in depth in the account of Crispus Attucks and the Boston Massacre.
Newport’s Gilded Mansions and Narragansett Homeland
Wealth Built on Ancestral Shores
In the late nineteenth century, families of enormous industrial fortunes—the Vanderbilts among them—built The Breakers, Marble House, and The Elms, turning Newport into a summer playground for the American elite. These mansions’ name, inspired by the waves breaking along the shoreline, echoes the maritime world of the Narragansett people, whose seasonal coastal villages, fishing weirs, and shellfish harvesting defined these same shores long before colonialarii surveyors ever set foot there. The transformation of Narragansett Bay into a monument to Gilded Age excess illustrates how thoroughly Native presence was written out of the landscape in popular memory—despite the continued existence of Narragansett and Wampanoag communities in the region today.
Historical Context & Key Cultural Takeaways
- Every iconic American site examined here—from a dangerous amusement park to Gilded Age mansions—occupies the ancestral territory of a specific Native nation: Munsee Lenape lands in New Jersey, Comanche, Cherokee, Kickapoo, and Apache homelands in Texas, and Narragansett and Wampanoag territory in Rhode Island.
- The Texas Revolution cannot be honestly taught without addressing slavery: Mexico abolished the institution in 1829 and restricted American immigration in 1830 in part to contain it. For nearby Native nations, Texan independence brought dispossession and violence.
- Roger Williams remains a rare colonial figure who purchased land honestly from Canonicus and Miantonomi and studied the Narragansett language—yet the broader colonial project, epitomized by the Great Swamp Fight of 1675, still shattered Native power in southern New England.
- Indigenous and Black participation in the American Revolution, from the First Rhode Island Regiment to violence against Native nations, shows that the era’s promises of liberty were unequally distributed—a fact modern scholarship increasingly centers.
- Contemporary Narragansett, Wampanoag, Lenape, and Cherokee communities are not remnants of the past but living nations whose persistence is the true conclusion of every historical site discussed above.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Q: Who were the original inhabitants of Vernon Township, New Jersey, where Action Park operated?
A: The land lies within the traditional territory of the Munsee-speaking Lenape people. Lenape communities throughout northern New Jersey and the Delaware Valley were gradually displaced by colonial expansion and by treaties—some fraudulent, such as the 1737 Walking Purchase—forcing many families westward over generations. - Q: What did Roger Williams purchase from the Narragansett in 1636?
A: Williams acquired the land for Providence through direct purchase from the hereditary sachems Canonicus and Miantonomi, a practice consistent with Narragansett concepts of land stewardship. He also documented the Narragansett language in his 1643 book, A Key into the Language of America. - Q: How did the Texas Revolution affect Native nations?
A: The new Texas Republic, founded partly to preserve slavery after Mexico’s 1829 abolition of the institution, refused to honor land grants promised to the Cherokee of East Texas. In 1839, Chief Bowles (Duwali) and many followers were killed while defending their community, and Comanche, Kickapoo, and Lipan Apache nations faced escalating military campaigns by the Republic and later the state of Texas. - Q: Did Native Americans serve in the American Revolution in Rhode Island?
A: Yes. Narragansett and other Indigenous men, along with a significant number of Black soldiers—many formerly enslaved—served in the First Rhode Island Regiment, which fought in campaigns including the 1778 Battle of Rhode Island near Newport. - Q: Where can the Narragansett and Wampanoag peoples be found today?
A: The Narragansett Indian Tribe is federally recognized and headquartered in Charlestown, Rhode Island. Wampanoag communities, including the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), maintain recognized governments in Massachusetts today.
Concluding Synthesis: Cultural Legacy and Modern Preservation
The mosaic of stories often celebrated in American popular history—a notorious amusement park, the Liberty Lone Star of Texas, a haven of religious freedom, and glittering mansions on the Atlantic shore—belongs equally to the Indigenous nations who lived on, and in many cases still inhabit, these same lands. The Lenape displacement from New Jersey, the Cherokee tragedy in Texas, the near-liquidation and modern resurgence of the Narragansett, and the enduring presence of the Wampanoag remind us that preservation is not only about conserving buildings and battlefields. It is about honoring treaty histories, recognizing Indigenous sovereignty, and telling the full record of the past.
Modern institutions across New England and Texas increasingly acknowledge this obligation, from museum repatriation efforts under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) of 1990 to tribal historical preservation offices that protect sacred landscapes and educate the public. Every visitor who walks the Revolutionary War Trail in Newport or gazes at The Breakers stands on Narragansett homeland. Remembering that fact—every time, at every site—is the first act of true historical justice.
