The Wampanoag tribes who had settled Rhode Island's East Bay held a special reverence for the land overlooking Mount Hope Bay. The leader of the Wampanoags, Metacom, who was called King Philip by the British colonists, summered there and enjoyed the bounty of the land and the waters.

In a Victorian-era craze that covered much of Rhode Island's coastlines with amusement parks, developers created a Metacom-themed amusement park on the land, complete with summer music, canoeing, and a carousel. In 1916, beer baron Rudolf F. Haffenreffer purchased 375 of Metacom's land to be used as a dairy farm.

Throughout his life, Haffenreffer collected Native American and Inuit artifacts. By 1928 his collections had become so extensive that he opened his displays to the public as "King Philip Museum." On his death in 1955, he donated the land and artifacts to Brown University to form a basis for a teaching museum for anthropology students at Brown. Hauffenreffer's original collection has grown to include over 10,000 items on display and another 90,000 items in storage, making the museum a treasurehouse of fascinating artifacts from the native peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and the Pacific.

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One of the long-standing exhibits features displays of Kachinas -- colorful dolls that depict the ancestral spirits who carry messages between the Hopi and their god. Glassed displays feature dozens of doll-sized figures, hand made by Hopi craftsmen from cottonwood roots, show not only the variety of the Kachina, but also the range variations common within a single design.

Another exhibit looks at weapons throughout the world, including Kris knifes of Indonesian Moro natives, decorative Chinese coin swords, and native armor made of hardened animal hide. The museum invites visitors to consider the role of weapons and how they have influenced cultures throughout the ages.

The rotating exhibits make repeated visits worthwhile. Two main-floor galleries feature displays created by museum students as class projects. What might be a display of Vietnamese Hmong artifacts one season might be a display of Inuit skin boats the next.

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Museum curators make special efforts to make displays that appeal to children. Almost half of the museum's 17,000 visitors each year are children, making hands-on exhibits a high priority. In a recent exhibit of Inuit artifacts, a hands-on display allowed visitors to try on Eskimo parkas, feel the fur of seals and walrus, and lace up a skin kayak.

Museum staff and volunteer docents teach special children's programs to more than 6,000 area school children who visit the Haffenreffer Museum each year. They lead students of all ages through experiential, hands-on programs about Native Americans of Southeastern New England, the Arctic, and the Great Plains as well as other culture areas. These in-depth, two-hour programs engage all five senses as students learn about different people and cultures, past and present, in a format that is informal and fun.

One example is the Celebration of Laotian classical dance & music. The Sihavong family (Patrick, Diana and Jitana) mastered the intricacies of classical Laotian music and dance in their native Laos and now teach and perform these elegant arts in Rhode Island. This program included traditional Laotian dance performances, discussion of the costumes associated with Laotian classical dance, a performance of the bamboo Khaen pipe by Patrick Sihavong, a children’s fashion show, and dance instruction for audience members, all followed by a reception featuring samples of Laotian food.

There have been plans in the works for many years to move the Haffenreffer Museum to downtown Providence to make it more convenient to both students and a larger population of visitors. But until those plans finally come to fruition, you can discover native cultures around the world on the land where Metacom, the mighty war chief King Philip, held court over the Wampanoags.

The Haffenreffer offers public lectures, performances, symposia, festivals, and a broad range of related programs and events. The Museum is open from 11AM - 5PM on Saturdays and Sundays from September through May; during the summer (June-August), it is open during the same hours every day except Monday. Admission is free to Museum members. The general public is welcome to attend: $3 adults, $2 seniors, and $1 children. For more information, please contact the Museum at (401) 253-8388. The Haffenreffer Museum is located at 300 Tower Street, Bristol, Rhode Island. Call them at 253-8388 or visit the Museum on the World Wide Web at www.haffenreffermuseum.org.

About the author, Paul Pence: Not a life-long Rhode Islander, Paul got to Rhode Island as fast as he could. He has 25 years of writing experience and numerous publication credits including the Providence Journal, the East Greenwich Magazine, Weissmann Travel Reports, Travel Lady Magazine, Jackhammer, Your Skin and Sun, TravelNotes, TexWoman, and many others.

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