Free Republic

On this date in 1676, Puritan colonist Joshua Tefft (or Tifft, or Tift) became perhaps the only person ever to suffer the traitor’s death of hanging and quartering in what is now the United States. The 30-ish Rhode Island farmer got sucked into King Philip’s War and was captured by colonists apparently fighting for the Narragansett Indians during a the Great Swamp Fight. Lacking a first-person account from Mr. Tefft, we are left to descry (or project) his purpose. Tefft himself claimed that he had been enslaved by the Indians, but he made this claim in the context of trying...

URI Oceanography Professors John King (second from right) and Arthur Spivack (right) watch as core samples are collected at Salty Brine State Beach following the explosion in July. Credit: Chris Deacutis ============================================================================================================================================= When an explosion beneath the sand at Salty Brine State Beach in Narragansett injured a visiting vacationer, state and local police and the bomb squad found no evidence of what may have caused the blast. So state officials turned to scientists at the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography for answers. It didn't take long before they had solved the mystery. Janet Coit, director of the...

Plain Talk on the Genetic Issue For some, a world outlook entails a vision of permanence and stability; that like the day, time commenced at some point and will continue to another; that the world is fixed, unchanging, and immutable - all that is necessary for human comfort is written for the ages as preparation for a coming Winter.Others see the universe in constant flux; that when the Lord made time, He made it in plenty - perhaps to see that not everything would happen all at once - that all things ~ all life ~ is in motion; that...

June Goodhue says she’s known about the rock since she and her late husband moved to North Kingstown’s Pojac Point in 1952. Sitting in shallow water, the 8-foot-long boulder sported unusual markings that were typically visible only at extreme low tide. Goodhue said she heard people say the markings might be ancient runic characters left by Viking or Nordic explorers. Even so, Goodhue, who is now 89, says she didn’t give much thought to the significance of what people call the Narragansett Rune Stone or Quidnessett Rock. That is, until a week or so before Christmas 2011 when her neighbor...

<p>PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The Narragansett Indian Tribe (search) sued the state Tuesday, claiming their rights were violated during a tumultuous state police raid on the tribe's new tax-free tobacco shop.</p> <p>The Narragansetts also asked the U.S. District Court (to reaffirm that the tribe is a sovereign nation and declare that the state police acted illegally when they arrested eight tribe officials Monday and confiscated tobacco products and $900 from the tribe's smoke shop, which opened Saturday on tribal land.</p>