Dear Sauna Goer,

You may be visiting one of our beautiful beaches, where natural beauty meets enduring history. For thousands of years, this land and these waters have been home to the Wampanoag people, the Indigenous people of this place.

As you sit with nature, you are also sitting with this land’s ancestors who cared for this land and water long before us, and who continue to do so today.

With open body, mind, and heart, we invite you to honor the generations of people who have enjoyed and lived with this water and earth before you.

- Altær

Bouquet of pink roses and eucalyptus branches in a glass jar against a wood-paneled wall

Little Compton, Rhode Island

Little Compton, or Sakonnet, is the homeland of the Sakonnet Wampanoag people. Ancestral knowledge and archaeological evidence suggests that the Wampanog have been in Sakonnet since the end of the last ice age, 12,000 years ago.

In the 16th century, the Sakonnets encountered European explorers and fishermen, and in 1682, English settlers renamed Sakonnet as Little Compton.

Read more on the history of Little Compton and the Sakonnet Wampanoag from the Little Compton Historical Society

Vintage black-and-white postcard showing people relaxing on rocks at South Shore beach in Little Compton, Rhode Island.

Postcard of South Shore Beach ca. 1905. We’ve tried to find this exact location, but the sea is always changing. Altær is parked downbeach from where we believe this photo was taken.
Image courtesy of Little Compton Historical Society

Painting of a bundled Indigenous person standing beside a leafless tree and stone structure in a snowy landscape

Awashonks, imagined portrait by Dora Atwater Millikin, 2008. LCHS Collection Awashonks, or “She who is queen,” was chief of the Sakonnet people in 1660.

Warren, Rhode Island

Historic black-and-white photograph of a coastal village with a small house, dirt road, shoreline, docks, and distant buildings.

Warren, Rhode Island, or Sowams, is home to the Pokanoket Wampanoag, and most notably the home of Chief Massasoit Ousamequin, 17th century Chief of the Pokanoket band, and the Grand Leader of the Wampanoag Nation.

Chief Massasoit notably greeted the first colonists upon their arrival Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620. Massasoit was able to keep peace for many decades, until his passing in 1661.

For more information on Massasoit and Warren, RI visit the Warren Historical Society.

Undated photograph of Warren Town Beach ca. 1920. This beach is now a beautiful park, and a location of Altær.
Image courtesy of the Warren Preservation Society Facebook Page

Vintage postcard illustration of the Statue of Massasoit in Plymouth, Massachusetts, depicting a Native American leader holding a spear among landscaped grounds and houses.
Vintage postcard illustration of the Statue of Massasoit in Plymouth, Massachusetts, depicting a Native American leader holding a spear among landscaped grounds and houses.

Statue of Massasoit in Plymouth, MA overlooking the site of Plymouth Rock. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.