The Indians and colonists of the Narragansett Bay region shared land and resources for almost 40 years in mutual accommodation. Rhode Island (renamed from Aquidneck Island) became a haven for Antinomians, Baptists, Arminians, Five-Principle Baptists, and Seventh-Day Baptists, Quakers, Jews, and even Huguenots.
Relations between the early settlers and the Indians were friendly, due mostly to the friendship and respect between Roger Williams and Miantonomi, the chief sachem of the Narragansetts. Land was purchased from the Indians with fair negotiations and mutual agreement. The Narragansetts resided mainly on the western side of the Bay, the Wampanoags on the eastern side.
When the settlement obtained a mandate from Charles I, it included all the land along the Bay south of Warwick. The territory of the Indians was reduced to a virtual reservation in what is now Charlestown, Rhode Island.
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