In our work on Block Island, originally known as 'Manisses' the stolen land of the Narragansett's Manissean people, we are working to not only restore the flora, fauna and soil of this amazingly special place but also reaching out to the Black and Indigenous communities here today to make sure that our work is in line with their visions for the land.

We are honored to now be in direct contact with Maryann Matthews, a member of the Manissean Tribe and life long Block Islander, to model our conservation efforts in alignment with Native perspectives and intent for their ancestral homeland.

We acknowledge that both the lands and waters of Block Island are sacred to the original Manissean residents of Block Island, who inhabited this land before it was stolen from them by U.S colonizers; and also to their descendants who have largely been forced off the island through financial discrimination in the form of predatory mortgages, shortages of affordable housing and a myriad of systemically unethical practices which have left the Manissean Tribe, like many other federally recognized and unrecognized tribes across the U.S, without access to and ownership of their homelands.

It is our hope that we will continue to work together with The Block Island Land Trust, The Nature Conservancy and the Manissean tribe to begin to rectify these inequities as a key part of our conservation efforts.

We strive to honor Native American history and directly support the modern culture of the Mannisean peoples, which is still very much alive and thriving.